Thoughts from a Regular Guy

Leave Casey Anthony Alone

2011-07-17T09:02:00.000-05:00

It really saddens me that people who claim to be constitution supporting Americans believe that if their opinion differs from a jury they are free to harass, threaten, and denigrate a person who was found not guilty by a jury of her peers. I don't agree with the verdict but I DO respect the process and the verdict of her peers. My disagreement does not entitle me to persecute this person or the jury through any means including social bullying on Facebook, or Twitter or anywhere else.

If you are a constitution supporting American then you must respect the system that tells us we are all innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The system is not perfect but it is certainly better than Mexico where you are guilty until proven innocent.

Consider this, would you want the Attorney General Eric Holder to function under a system that says we are guilty until proven innocent? Would you want police to act with illegal immigrants under a guilty first system?

I suspect that both progressive liberals and conservatives would all find something horribly wrong with that type of system.

So unless you have EVIDENCE of another crime committed by Casey Anthony then you must let her live her life as an innocent American.

I can no longer respect the NAACP

2010-07-13T21:16:00.001-05:00

The NAACP says its mission(1) is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination." Why then does the NAACP ignore Minister King Samir Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party when he says "You want freedom? You're gonna have to kill some crackers! You're gonna have to kill some of their babies!" ?

While at the same time generating a resolution based on "claims of racism, most notably in March near the end of the bitter health care debate. U.S. Reps. John Lewis, Andre Carson and Emanuel Cleaver said some demonstrators, many of them Tea Party activists, yelled a racial epithet as the black congressmen walked from House office buildings to the Capitol. Cleaver, D-Mo., also said he was spit on." (2) None of those claims could be confirmed despite all of the recordings happening at the time of the alleged epithets.

We have clear undeniable evidence of a confirmed racist spreader of hate speak in Minister King Samir Shabbazz that the NAACP ignores while they condemn a group based on allegations with no clear evidence.

How can anyone respect the NAACP or their mission while they behave like this. I will no longer contribute financially to their organization until they decide to actually follow their own mission statement without regard to race.

Comment about my Arizona thoughts along with my responses

2010-05-19T12:55:00.000-05:00

The following is a rather lengthy comment in response to my post in support of Arizona. Rather than just publish the comment I felt it was best that I post the comment with my responses.
I will put the relevant Poster part first followed by my response. You will find the comment in its entirety attached to the Arizona post.

Poster:
" I saw Jay Leno at Correspondent Dinner his best line was; “That was my favorite story (this year) Republicans and a Lesbian bondage club. It’s ironic, Republicans don’t want lesbian getting married but they do like watching them “tie the knot”. So I thought that was interesting.”
My Response:
This has nothing to do with the Arizona law or even imigration. I find it fascinating that this persons first response to my post is to go completely off track and paint a group of people based on a Jay Leno joke or even to paint an entire group of people based on a single event. Oh wait that's profiling so maybe this person is giving us an example of profiling.
Poster:
You can say the same about Tea Party (they are haters not debaters or as others have dubbed them screamers not dreamers), they say they respect the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence but they do not mind passing laws, through weak Governors (no one voted for this crazy) who only care about getting reelected on the backs of undocumented workers, that will not pass Constitution muster, just like Arizona’s House Bill 2779 from two years ago and your MLK Day ban, keep passing them Arizona and the rest of us will continue to challenged them in a court of law and you will fail again (and yes we will Boycott Arizona). Their phony patriotism is sickening; they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head?
My Response:
Since I never mentioned the Tea Party and no official in Arizona was elected by a Tea Party that I am aware of I am not sure what the point of that part is.
I do agree that you challenge laws in the court, that is the right place to challenge them because what is looked at is the actual law and not irrational fear of a slippery slope that someone is convinced will happen even before the law is implimented. Boycotts among neighbor states are not the answer and only end up hurting everyone. California is having enough trouble managing their own house without attacking a neighbor. As far as undocumented workers I think that's the point to not allow that slavery class to exist because of illegal immigration.
It would have been great to see this person actually read the Arizona law and then comment on the parts that concern them as potential for problems. That however would have meant this person actually had to read the bill, actually had to think about the existing federal law, and instead of mud slinging would have engaged in a real conversation. Unfortunately individuals like this do not think, they only spew the mindless dribble from whomever they receive it be they the left or the right.

The rest of this is a mindless wandering set of mud slinging statements that have nothing to do with my Arizona law post. I will not address this for that reason however I will leave it here to indicate the state of this persons mind.

Poster:
Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called “facts”. Let’s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, that’s like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that. Yee Haw!

Arizona is doing the right thing for their citizens

2010-05-05T21:32:00.003-05:00

And before you go there, illegal immigrants in the state are not citizens of the state.

Before any more ignorant individuals decide to "boycott Arizona" perhaps they should read the actual law. Here is the link to it Click Here The protections in the bill against profiling/racism are completely spelled out and that is mostly because the federal law already has those protections built in.

The real problem here has nothing to do with the actual law because all it does is restate the existing federal law, the real problem for some people is the law might actually be enforced more successfully now since Arizona citizens can sue people like the Mayor of Phoenix that want to interfere with law officers actually enforcing the law.

In 2009 there were 2,426,400 non-farm employees and ~500,000 illegal immigrants in the state. Now everyone knows that prices for what we buy are set by a forces referred to as supply & demand. What many people do not realize is that labor rates are set by the same set of forces and if only half of those illegal immigrants are taking jobs then the labor pool is diluted by 10% and labor rates for many industries will remain lower. When you hear a company or industry spokes person say "these are jobs Americans don't want to do" what they are really saying but not going to tell you is that "these are jobs Americans don't want to do FOR WHAT WE WANT TO PAY THEM". Industries like landscaping and others employing illegal immigrants keep labor rates lower for everyone by doing so.

You go Arizona and everyone who believes in the rule of law should support Arizona. Perhaps even spending a little money this year specifically on Arizona Made Products

Even though it is made in New York I will even be buying extra Arizona Tea products this summer.

Come on people, illegal immigration impacts all of us in some way not just the border states.

Fox News Channel and the White House

2009-10-24T09:38:00.004-05:00

First I want to make it clear up front that I have watched CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News a great deal over the last 10 years so I have enough experience to weigh in on this dust up between the White House and Fox News.

Members of the Presidents staff have accused Fox News of "not being a real news organization". So if Fox News was not doing a good job of being the watch dog the press is suppose to be then why would institutions like the New York Times say this:
"Executives at other news organizations, including The New York Times, had publicly said that their newsrooms had not been fast enough in following stories Fox News had been heavily covering through the summer and fall — namely, the focus on past statements and affiliations of White House adviser Van Jones that ultimately led to his resignation and questions surrounding the community activist group ACORN"

I believe that the vast majority of Americans can distinguish between commentary shows (that tell you on almost every show that they are not journalist but are commentators) and news programs that call themselves that. If you watch Glenn Beck and Chris Wallace and you can not tell the difference then you are blinded by your own prejudices. Glenn Becks web site actually says the "fusion of entertainment and enlightenment" which pretty much tells you this is not news from a journalist. It does not appear that our current Presidents administration can tell the difference between commentators and journalists. .

Napoleon Bonaparte
“A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of
nations. Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”

Perhaps the White House has started their anti-FNC efforts because they fear the information presented. Perhaps we should all watch FNC, check the facts presented ourselves (easy enough with youtube and the Internet today) and then decide whether there is merit to what the White House is communicating or not.

Benjamin Franklin gives us another reason to look into this ourselves and decide:
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of
speech.”

The purpose of the free press and the job of journalist is to be a watchdog and inform the citizenry when wrongs are done and abuses occur. Watch CNN, MSNBC, FNC, etc, and then decide for youself who is truly being a watchdog and who perhaps is being a lap dog. While we all know the internet is full of wrong information we also know that many facts can be confirmed through the use of the internet.

Quotes are from this source

Duke Nukem Forever is Never - MIA not KIA

2009-05-07T07:07:00.002-05:00

Well it seems that Joel Siegler (See his comment on my "Duke Nukem Forever is not happening" blog entry) was pretty close to dead wrong. As I stated in that post 3D Realms is, in my opinion, incompetent in its approach to delivering Duke Nukem Forever. And it seems news releases have now come very close to confirming that I was right and Joel was wrong about the potential for Duke Nukem Forever to ever see the light of day.

See this article

The really sad part here is that if 3D Realms had been only reasonably competent in their approach to delivering products to their customers it is likely they would still be in business. I suggested before and I still believe their best approach is to license the Duke Nukem property to a company that is actually competent in creating, testing, and delivering good video games to their customers. Perhaps Bungie or Infinity Ward?

Very sad that these guys, in my opinion, let arrogance destroy their company. The arrogance that said "when it's done". Think about how much customers were crying out to own this game, I would refer you to their forum but the 3D Realms website is already shut down, and it's pretty obvious the game would have been a significant money maker.

But perhaps playing World of Warcraft was just a higher priority for them.

I certainly hope someone picks up the Duke franchise.

Duke Nukem Forever wins #1 Vaporware Spot!

2009-02-16T10:58:00.002-05:00

Well Duke Nukem Forever continues to earn top marks as Vaporware. Check out the latest at Wired Magazine. For 2008 DNF gets the #1 spot although it should be noted that Heroes Journey is only 2 years behind DNF so who knows if DNF actually releases then it might lose the #1 Vaporware spot of all time.

Mr Anonymous tells me it will be an AWESOME game whenever it releases. I am not sure how he/she knows this because so far the teaser trailer is extremely unimpressive. If you slow down the video you see some really crappy quality on both characters and the backgrounds. They flash the monsters by real fast but a little closer inspection shows some real boring coloring and cartoonish graphics in the background. The blood splatter on the bus looks flat, Dukes muscle shirt has little depth to it and looks like he painted his skin. Granted its a teaser so perhaps the final product will be awesome or perhaps with so much FPS competition out there it will be just another "whatever" moment for gamers.

On a happier note Dawn of War II the sequel to 2004 Dawn of War releases February 19th, imagine that a sequel that was produced in 4 years, what a concept.

Perhaps 3D realms should sell the Duke rights to a company that actually believes in producing products for their customers and retire with a boat load of cash to play WOW full time with hookers and cocaine as their guild partners. Hey it's a thought and I am not the first one to have it.

Podcasts are fun on the run

2009-01-24T12:05:00.003-05:00

Podcasts have been around for a while now but never interested me until I had something portable to play the podcasts. I could play them at my PC but I have better things to do when working or playing on my PC. Now that I have a Zune I have really gotten into podcasts on everything from Buzz Out Loud to Ugly Betty (OK yes I like to watch Ugly Betty). The reason for this is because I can play them on the run with my Zune. I can listen at Starbucks while having coffee or play them in the car through the AUX port while driving, or play them while sitting in some waiting area for doctors, car repairs, etc.

The Zune software has made it real easy to access podcasts where ever I find them on the internet so now I look for podcasts as I do research on the web. Obviously other software can do this just as well but what is important to me is the software made it easy to do without having to be some podcast technical guru.

Thanks to PirateT7 for introducing me to podcasts all those years ago even if it did take a long time before I actually used them. :)

Gamestop is wrong to worry about Steam

2009-01-24T11:57:00.002-05:00

Rumor is GameStop is refusing to sell or take orders for Dawn of War II because the game requires installation of the digital download capability STEAM. GameStop corporate is cutting their nose to spite their face on this one. I find it hard to believe that I am the only gamer out there that prefers physical media to digital download. I will be picking up Dawn of War II at another retailer now that GameStop has made this poor decision.

Check out this article

http://kotaku.com/5136323/why-is-gamestop-no-longer-selling-dawn-of-war-ii

Duke Nukem Forever is not happening

2008-12-24T15:01:00.006-05:00

Duke Nukem was a great game released in the 90's and in 1997 the company 3D Realms announced Duke Nukem Forever as a game they were developing for release in 1998.

In 2000 Wired Magazine ran an article on the top 10 vaporware products.

"The winners of the Wired News Vaporware 2000 awards in reverse order are:

10: Tribes 2:
9: Wireless Web Pads:
8: Bluetooth:
7: Silicon Film's Electronic Film System:
6: Warcraft III:
5: Intel's Itanium chips:
4: A New Linux kernel:
3: Black and White:
2: Duke Nukem Forever:
1: Mac OS X: "
Link to the article I quote: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2000/12/40484?currentPage=all
The only one of these to NEVER see the light of day in 10 years is Duke Nukem Forever.

It even made PC Worlds list of the top 15 vaporware products of all time.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/145351/the_top_15_vaporware_products_of_all_time.html

It seems the title was very prophetic since it will be the far side of forever before it ever releases. The saddest part is 3D Realms treatment of their fan base, you should see the list of topics you are not allowed to discuss at their forum. Basically anything to do with the fact that they are incompetent and completely unable to plan a project to deliver this game. I work in software development so I understand the kinds of things that can derail, delay, cancel, etc product development. At this point they should just cancel the product all together and stop stringing their customers along. By this time Halo, Doom, Quake, Gears, Resistance, Call of Duty, etc have taken such a chunk of their customers away that I doubt any Duke they would manage to release could ever recoup the development cost. And notice the companies that work on these other games have actually managed to complete a software development project to produce a successful product multiple times during the last 10 years

3D Realms - Stop jerking everyone around and stop being so arrogant with your customer base. It will be done when it's done I expect from a 10 year old not from a business entity that is suppose to actually produce a product.

HellBoy 2 - a very fun ride for fans

2008-07-26T11:53:00.003-05:00

I have to say I enjoyed the first HellBoy movie and enjoyed the second even more. It's not for everyone but I hope fans of the HellBoy series will positively react to the second movie so we could perhaps get a third one :)

France must like repeating history - AKA Chip on shoulder=stupidity

2008-03-13T07:09:00.004-05:00

France's foreign minister has made some very interesting statements about the United States. Here is the gist of what he said

PARIS — Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France, said Tuesday that whoever succeeds Bush in the White House will have to restore the United States' battered image and standing overseas [...].

[...]Kouchner said the United States will never be the country it was before the Bush presidency and would have to work to repair its reputation, especially since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. [...] He added that, although it will take time, the new president will have “many means to re-establish the image” of a country whose reputation is suffering. [...]

"We have to talk with our enemies," he said.

I especiallyi like that last statement. Talk is all the French actually seem willing to do and this is not the first time. Remember that little bit of history called WWII, now before you start telling me to get over it and times are different hear me out.

Consider this point:
Hitler started to re-arm Germany and in 1935 he re-introduced conscription (the recruiting of all young, able men into the army). This was against the terms of the Versailles Treaty. Britain, France and Italy condemned Germany's actions but did nothing to stop her.

Yes I know Italy was a bad boy later on but still the two leading world powers talked and did nothing.

And this piont:
the Rhineland area it was to be a 'demilitarised' zone. But in 1936 Hitler marched troops into the Rhineland. The French had a much bigger army than the Germans and could have driven the German troops out. But the French army took no action.

And this point:
when Hitler marched troops into Austria, Britain and France only protested.

And a final point"
Neville Chamberlain, [...] (British)Prime Minister in 1937, was determined that Europe should not be dragged into another world war. He wanted to find out what Hitler wanted and if necessary, give it to him in order to maintain peace. This was the policy, popular at the time known as appeasement. Hitler told Chamberlain that once the question of the Sudetenland was settled he had 'no further territorial ambitions Europe'. Britain and France therefore persuaded Czechoslovakia to hand over the Sudetenland to Germany in order to maintain peace in Europe Hitler had lied.

Action is often neccesary to prevent larger problems later down the road. Problems that may or may not be caused by previous actions such as the Versaiille treaty being a big part of what brought about WWII.

The problem with the French is they only care about themselves, it is not their population being poison gassed, it is not their leader who refuses to allow UN inspectors unfettered access, it is not there leader that ignores every UN sanction making that form of diplomacy useless and it is not their people suffering needlessly.

Do we need to talk? absolutely! but to the extent that things get completely out of hand.

When is the right time to take action? I am not sure and I don't think anyone can really ever know before the action is taken. Because of this we must ask ourselves is the action we are taking making positive contributions and not just to us, like the selfish French, but to those we are helping.

Consider the progress that France and liberals want us to ignore:
Pessimists have been repeatedly wrong about the prospects for postwar political progress in Iraq.
They doubted that the Iraqis would finish writing an interim constitution on time in 2003;

they doubted that sovereignty could be transferred to an interim Iraqi government by that constitution’s deadline in 2004;

they doubted that elections could be conducted on the constitution’ ambitious timetable, in January 2005.

They were wrong on all counts.

One last point about progress in Iraq:
Although critics impatiently complain about its slow pace, Iraq is making much faster progress in standing up an elected government than Germany or Japan did following World War II. Given the tremendous damage inflicted on Iraqi civil society by more than three decades of dictatorship, the Iraqis are doing remarkably well in forging a national consensus among the Shiite Arab majority, Sunni Arabs, Kurds, and other minority groups with a long history of mutual distrust.

I don't want any countries soldiers or citizens dieing in a war and yet there are circumstances that demand such sacrifices. France only wants to talk which means ZERO sacrifice on their part and continued sacrifice on the part of others they refuse to help.

Link to French foreign minister story
Link to before WWII information
Link to progress in Iraq article

Berkely California is PRO rape, PRO murder, PRO torture,

2008-02-13T07:23:00.005-05:00

It occurs to me that the city of Berkely must really enjoy rape, murder, discrimination against women, torturing children, and poison gas as a means of controlling a rebellious population.

You see if you are against what we are striving to do in Iraq than you are willing to allow all of this to return.

So let's see
The city of Berkely California is PRO rape rooms.
The city of Berkely California is PRO mass murder of men women and children.
The city of Berkely California is PRO chemical weapons of mass destruction.
The city of Berkely California is PRO torture. Not the silly water boarding kind, I am talking the feet in the plastic shredder kind of torture.
The city of Berkely California is ANTI a judicial system that does not do as told

This article from the Wall Street Journal gives you an idea of what we stopped. My only complaint is we did not help the Iraq people soon enough.
Criminal Against Humanity

We can choose to disagree about why we went into Iraq and we can choose to disagree about how to best complete operations there but one thing we should not disagree about is that we are doing much more good by being there than by not being there. If the City of Berkely California ran our country prior to WWII we would all be talking German or Japanese today.

Let's not be totally short sighted about this and lets support every one of our troops completely even while we argue with our politicians about how to best complete operations.

RAMBO - as true to life as it gets

2008-01-28T06:59:00.000-05:00

This weekend I saw Rambo, I was both horrified and impressed. The story is plausible and it highlights the Burma civil war in graphic detail. Killings in this movie are so real it will make most people cringe and turn away. The important thing to remember is the realism is not exaggerated but rather is showing you truly some of what is going on in the ongoing Burma civil war as well as the realities of what must be done to protect the innocent. Cruel, violent, men without morals or conscience can not be negotiated with they can only be removed like a cancer from the earth.

This movie is well worth seeing if you have the stomach to know what it really is like for the people of Burma and those that try to help them.

You know your a racist when.....

2008-01-07T09:21:00.000-05:00

This December I had a horrible encounter with a member of our camping club. We were having what started out as a good dicussion of political candidates when suddenly this person says "I don't know what would be worse a woman or a nigger in the White House." To say the least I respectively explained to him that a persons skills, knowledge, ability to lead, etc. are determined by many things. The color of their skin or what they have between their legs are two things that do not determine anything. I find it so dis-heartening that we are 144 years past the emancipation proclamation, 53 years past Brown vs. Board of Education Topeka, KS. and we still have people that judge others by color or gender.

The flip side of this to be fair are people of color that think all white people are racists, I know such a person. This is just as bad and until this event the most racist person I knew was a black person.

Judge all by their actions, and deeds. Do not judge them by appearances.

Back to Blogging I hope

2008-01-07T09:20:00.000-05:00

Well the fall and holidays was a killer time for me at work and at home. Pretty much put blogging and a bunch of other stuff on hold for months :)

MoveOn.org - Is this really what you want?

2007-09-19T06:38:00.000-05:00

I thought our country supported our military troops even though some of us disagreed with the current Iraq policies? If this is true why does MoveOn.org attack our military leader with their advertisement. General Patreaus was almost unanimously approved by Congress and yet now liberal democrats remain silent when their dictatorial master MoveOn.org attacks this fine commander.

Could someone, anyone, point out to me what is wrong with our Iraq policy? I see people happily voting in IRaq, I see women getting educated, being allowed into politics, and freed from the tyranny that existed in a regime that ruled through torture and fear. I read the transcripts I can find from Saddam's trial and shudder at the many examples of WMD's turned loose on the IRaqi people. I remember U.N. inspectors being prevented from confirming the elimination of all WMD's and related technologies in Iraq.

Do Americans really cower and want to turn away because a minority of bad apples in Iraq want us out before the country achieves true democratic Independence? The path to freedom and democracy is not an easy one and not something that happens on a set timeline. I know we want more political progress to be made but leaving does not abandon politicians that are not doing things fast enough. Leaving abandons all the wives, mothers, women, children, men, fathers, and husbands that seem to relish their freedom as demonstrated by their enthusiasm in elections.

For any that read this and comment I ask one specific question of you that I want your comment to address: Do you condemn what MoveOn.org has done in its Patreaus add?

Xbox Live is Poisoning Your Children

2007-08-28T06:13:00.000-05:00

As many of you know I am an avid gamer and play many games online through Xbox Live. The games I play are mostly rated M for Mature meaning adult only, sort of like an X rating on movies. What I find surprising is the number of very young children I hear playing these games which are extremely brutal with significant foul language. The game is actually the tame part of the experience for children under 17. The really vulgar part of the experience is many of the people on live. You hear people, including many young children, curse and degrade players with terms like Mother Fucker, Gay asshole, and nigger. Yes I used the N word because outside of some movie use Xbox live is the only place I hear children calling other people these terms. Your children are learning hate, foul language, and how to degrade others if they are playing on Xbox Live. Every parent that allows their child to play online must sit-in and listen to what they are experiencing. Many parents I am sure would immediately cut the network cable if they knew what was really going on. Here are some other things I hear all to often when playing games online.

You fucking newbie, go play with yourself you motherfucker

Your a God damn nigger you fuck!

Yea I raped your mother too shit head!

That's right asshole I tea bagged you!

Your so fucking gay

And trust me this is just the tip of vulgar iceberg. Parents listen to what is going on and take control before your child thinks calling people niggers or motherfuckers is acceptable.

I read the Presidents Speech again and I still think we did the right thing for the right reasons

2007-08-06T07:57:00.001-05:00

Reading the entire speech from President Bush on Iraq before the war I still think America made the right move for the right reasons. I was and still am unwilling to wait for those that are proven enemies of freedom to go too far before we do something about them. Remember President Clinton passed over a chance to stop Osama before he became too dangerous and look at the repercussions of that decision. We should not judge President Clinton on this single point though because again he made what he believed was the best decision based on the information he had available at that time.

New information or changing intelligence does not mean we stop a course of action unless you truly believe that course of action is wrong in its entirety. Abandoning the freedom loving, struggling voters of Iraq is wrong. We are not a conquering nation and there are many reasons to see this through. Including helping in the overall war on terrorism. I love the fact that we are catching Al Queda leaders over there.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html

Equating disagreement with the President's strategy with lack of support for the military [ is nonsense ]

2007-07-29T00:59:00.000-05:00

The title was a comment I received on a previous post and this person could not be any more wrong. Who according to our constitution is the Commander in Chief of the military and why do you think our founding fathers knew that a war run by a political committee was doomed to fail. Our founding fathers and other wise men after them did know that the people through their representatives needed to approve any war. They also knew once that approval was given the President needed to run things and not political parties. Congress approved the war, Congress approved the current military commander in Iraq, unanimously, and they approved the troop escalation his plan called for. But now suddenly when it has become politically expedient for them to do so some of these same people start calling for troop withdrawal plans, less than month after starting the new strategy they voted for they say it has failed. Then they choose to play political football with troop funding including increased compensation for the volunteer military personnel that are implementing the strategy congress approved. There is only disagreement with the President's strategy because Democrats and secular progressives see it as a political win to disagree. I applaud those in Congress who have asked for improvements, got those improvements and now want to provide our military commanders the time to enact new strategies.

We can only fail in Iraq by turning our backs on our military and all the freedom loving people of the world. The terrorist organizations that are arranging for beheadings' and road side bombings are the same terrorists that attacked the US, Spain, Britain, and other countries that love freedom. Anyone who thinks the people in Iraq causing trouble are not terrorist organizations needs to pay closer attention to the all the facts coming out of Iraq. If the people of Iraq were not interested in Freedom and getting the help they need then they would not have turned out for the elections in such large numbers under the threat of death from terrorist organizations.

Iraqi's genuinely want to be free and here is one example:

"He [top U.S. commander in Baghdad] said that in the Abu Ghraib area more than 1 500 fighters had volunteered to serve in the Iraqi security forces, with 300 new recruits showing up each day.[...] They also have to take an oath of allegiance to Iraq, Fil said."They want to fight with us. They are tired of Al-Qaeda and the influence of Al-Qaeda in their tribes and in their neighbourhoods, and they want them cleaned out," he said."

Here is the link to the full story Click Here

I have one last comment. Read as much testimony from Saddam's trial as you can find and then tell me we should not be there, he never had WMD's, and we should not stay.

If Democrats were in charge in 1776 our country would not exist

2007-07-28T11:49:00.000-05:00

I don't understand why Democrats keep harping on a pull out strategy, a strategy for losing to the enemies of freedom. Why is it so hard to trust our military leaders and be supportive of their efforts to help an entire country to live free and never again be a haven for terrorists that want to destroy us. And on top of that liberals want to blame our President for starting a war. Joy Behar on "The View" when discussing Presidential candidates said perhaps we would elect one that won't start a war. When did President Bush launch missiles into the World Trade Center, when did President Bush blow up the U.S.S. Cole, when did he support training camps in Afghanistan, when did he drop poison gas and nerve gas on Kurdish Villages in Iraq, when did run Iraq as a dictatorship friendly to terrorist groups?

Our Military has some of the best leaders in the world and while no human is perfect I do believe our military leaders have implemented a better strategy in Iraq. Our military leaders deserve our support and deserve our patience. None of us wants people dieing in Iraq. Our military soldiers have the dedication to see this through and they deserve us continuing to support them instead of trying to demoralize them by asking for a pull out plan.

Tell me this which wars ended better, those we stuck with or those we bailed on because we lacked the backbone to finish. And please don't confuse Vietnam with Iraq. In Vietnam our President thought he was a great military leader and he screwed the pooch by micro managing the military. President Bush is relying on his military professionals like a President should. That is why the supporters of Freedom will win in Iraq when we did not win in Vietnam. And this is why we should stick with Iraq until the job is done instead of acting like scared yellow children who are easily bullied by the guerrilla tactics used by terrorists.

FOX news fair and balanced is too much for Democrats

2007-06-25T07:13:00.000-05:00

I am still pretty surprised by the reaction of Hillary Clinton(She dropped the Rodham part) Clinton and Barack Obama to a debate on Fox news sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Both of them are shunning the debate. Consider that the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation started looking for a television outlet for a debate four years ago and in that time only one news outlet made an acceptable offer to them. That news outlet is Fox News, how much more fair and balanced can you get than to work with a fine organization like the CBCF to put on a political debate for the largest cable news audience in the country. I am not sure what constitutes acceptable to the CBCF but surely this means a well structured and fairly run debate. Why then would leading democratic candidates shun this debate merely because they "feel" Fox News is a pro conservative news outlet? Who gives a care and even if it is pro-conservative isn't that the audience these democrats want to convert to their side? In my opinion Fox News is more fair and balanced than other cable and network news outlets. Their only sin is in being willing to deliver the conservative message that previously was relegated to only talk radio.

Consider the mission statement of the CBCF:
"With a focus on Leadership Education, Public Health, and Economic Development, CBCF is the premier organization that creates, identifies, analyzes and disseminates policy-oriented information critical to advancing African Americans and people of African descent towards equity in economics, health and education."

This debate on Fox News is exactly the sort of activity that supports this mission statement. Regardless of your race or political slant all of us should be very angry with any presidential candidate that refuses to debate on any national platform offered to them and that includes the CBCF debates on Fox News.

References for this blog include:
http://www.cbcfinc.org/
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/27/news/28dems.php

What is wrong in Boulder? or how to get a secular progressive to really piss people off!

2007-06-13T12:44:00.001-05:00

The details of the Boulder High School discussion panel about sex and drugs is all over the news and the Internet so I won't repeat that here. What I will say is there is no way to experiment with drugs responsibly, there is no reason to encourage teens to experiment with sex, there is no reason to suggest it is natural for teens to experiment with homosexuality, unless you are a secular progressive that wants more people to be as immoral as you are. But of course secular progressives think there should be no rules and everything you want to do should be OK with all of society. Alcohol abuse, illegal drugs, sexually transmitted diseases have not claimed enough lives yet for them. Secular progressives want our teens to do these things "responsibly" but do not think anyone should have to be responsible for their actions "that do not hurt others." I wonder if a mother that lost her child to meth agrees with that or a parent that has lost their child to alcohol agrees with this. People are hurt every day by the immoral acts of those they love and people around them, that is what makes these things immoral, their damage to society.

The secular progressives on this Boulder High School discussion panel showed their true nature.
How long will society last if our country is shaped as they wish it to be? Perhaps chaos and complete lack of any social health is exactly what they wish.

Paris Hilton - You get what the judge thinks you need

2007-06-08T15:01:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of self appointed experts in the media trying to justify why Paris Hilton should not serve time in jail or should be allowed home detention based on what punishment was or was not handed out to other celebrities or people. I think people are forgeting that the judge sat through the whole trial and determined based on all of the information in the trial what the sentence should be for Paris Hilton.

Personally I don't think Paris showed any respect for the court or the law during this whole issue and that contributed to what many perceive as a harsher sentence than necessary. The judge decided this sentence was needed to get through to Paris and get her to take this part of her life seriously. If the judge saw true remorse and respect for the law coming from the plaintiff I think that allows the judge to go easier on a plaintiff. There is no such thing as a single sentence standard that can be applied to everyone. The circumstances of the crime and the need to get through to a person are important parts of the sentencing phase.

Love or hatred by the public toward a celebrity has nothing to do with how any judge should or does determine a sentence.

And let us not forget that a DUI is part of this as well as a probation violation both of which would result in a much harsher sentence for most people in this country.

Paris needs to shut up, sit down, serve the time, and then take a more serious approach to the law of the land in the future.

Democrats do not think Fox News viewers are worth talking to..what do you think?

2007-06-01T23:37:00.000-05:00

Can you imagine the screams that would come from the liberals and secular progressives if Republican candidates refused to debate on an extremely liberal biased television channel like MSNBC or CNN? If the democratic candidates truly believe that Fox News is biased toward conservatives and attracts conservative viewers then refusing to debate on that channel means they do not believe conservatives need to be informed on their positions or hear their messages. How can Presidential candidates justify refusing to debate in front of the largest cable news audience in the country?

Here are some graphs representing viewership. The first is prime time and the second is day time viewership among cable news channels.

How sad that secular progressives are so unsure of their message that they can not debate on the most viewed cable news channel in the country. Democrats need to realize they are dismissing a large portion of the country and that is about as un-American as it gets. Can anyone that cares about themselves and their country really connect with candidates that could that care less about them?

Here is my source for the graphs.

http://http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/narrative_cabletv_audience.asp?cat=3&media=6

The war on terror is like the cold war...long and hard and worth all the effort in the long run

2007-05-31T19:19:00.000-05:00

People in America need to understand that the war on terror is a long and hard war just like the cold war was. Obviously the difference is that the war on Terror is on many fronts. Iraq and Afghanistan are only two of the fronts. Home land security is another front, the border with Mexico is another front in this war. I find it hard to believe that the general population of Iraq wants to be under the thumb of Islam extremists and that is exactly what happens if the good people of this world leave Iraq one second sooner than is right. Liberals that grew up in the 60's seem hell bent to have another Vietnam and have only bad things to say about America and our efforts to free the people of Iraq. Wake up people, citizens of Iraq were tortured, gassed, shot, arrested without any form of due process, and suffered without many of the freedoms and comforts that all Americans enjoy. Why is it so many Americans are convinced that people are getting hurt because we are in Iraq. People were getting hurt and suffering a long time before we got there. In fact I think we waited to long to go help the people of Iraq that had no clean water, food shortages, no electricity, mis-treatment of women and people out of power, lack of medicines, while those in power partied and built palaces to their glory. Before you decide we need a time table for with drawl you should really read what was happening before we got there. I have read many of the transcripts from the trials that have been going on over there and what those people have to say tears at my heart more than what the insurgents are doing now. God bless our troops and the military leaders in their efforts to keep a people free from tyranny. And liberals stop having such a short sighted view of this war.

Microsoft Customer Service has lost a loyal customer

2007-04-27T13:48:00.000-05:00

As most of you know I am a pretty big fan of Microsoft and their products. This includes my love for the Xbox 360. Well my loyalty to Microsoft has been shattered by a horrible customer experience. My 3rd Xbox 360 died on the 17th of April with the now famous red ring of death. This was too much, I was really pissed from having two refurb units die on me after only 6 months of use on each. I called the Microsoft support line, went throught the required troubleshooting and then told the guy I wanted them to send me a NEW unit and I would return my unit in the same box. I am tired of the long turn around times to replace the damn thing when people with Best Buy contracts just walk in and swap. I was told they could do this but another department handled that so my case was escalated to this 2nd level department. I was told I would hear back in 24 -48 hours. Forty-Eight hours later I call them again, this time I am told I am scheduled for a call back between 7 and 9 pm that night.

Now who can guess what happened between 7 & 9 pm? uh come on say, NADA, absolutely f*&^%_$# nothing. So I call back which was useless but I did and NOW I am told I will get a call back on the 22nd of April, a Sunday. I do keep trying to get connected to whomever these 2nd level people are but the supervisor just keeps telling me they have no way to cal l them. Of course the truth is if the outsourced partner calls Microsoft then the outsources partner pays a penalty to Microsoft.

Now who can guess what happened on Sunday? You people are all so quick today, your right abolutely no fuc%$^& phone call from anybody at Microsoft.

I decide to go around these people and right to Microsoft directly. This is not an easy task, their contact phone numbers are hidden better than Jimmy Hoffa, but I do find the number and manage to conince the auotomated operator to connect me to a human operator, again no easy trick but I am smaaaaaarrrrter than the average bear. This very nice lady, who speaks perfect American English, explains to me there is not "Customer complaint department" that she can connect me to. Microsoft ONLY takes customer complaints through email. At this point I am wondering and I say this with all respect for the victums but I am wondering if the Virginia Tech murderer was an Xbox 360 owner because my stress level with this situation is now way over the top.

I relent and send an email to the person, I do not wish to name, that the nice lady gave me. The email address appears to just be a dumping box to some customer complaint team. The email address is vpesc@microsoft.com. I was actually contacted within hours of sending that email. I sent the email on April 23rd at 11:40am ET and heard from the person assigned to me by 6pm ET that night.

On the downside this person explained that Microsoft is unable to ship me a new unit first. I even offered to provide a credit card in case I ripped them off but MS is not setup to process things this way. That is sad. On the upside the person said he can in fact replace mine with a new unit fresh off the production line. The unit won't be "retail" since it is not in a retail box but it will be a newly manufactured unit. So now I sit here waiting for the empty box that will arrive next Monday to my house.

From start of this to getting my empty return box will be a total of 13 days, I should have just had them send me an empty box on day 1 :(

At this point I have lost all respect for Microsoft customer service and my loyalty has been shattered which means I will no longer promote them or their products to friends and family.

Do anti-war protestors really understand what is at stake?

2007-03-18T01:19:00.000-05:00

In an article from A.P. about anti-war and pro-war protesters I found what I considered to be a very enlightening quote from an anti-war protester.

"Too many people have died and it doesn't solve anything," said Ann Bonner, who drove through snow with her husband, Tom O'Grady, and two children, 13 and 10, from Athens, Ohio. "I feel bad carrying out my daily activities while people are suffering, Americans and Iraqis."

"Too many people have died", of course too many have died, even one dieing is too many but here is the problem. You can not resolve issues with those that seek only your destruction and do not seek negotiation. This has been true through out time and only when a group that does evil is put under enough pressure do they begin to accept the concept of negotiation. Remember that most of these terrorists are religious zealots that only seek the complete and total destruction of "the western world"

"and it doesn't solve anything," Really, perhaps we should examine what has been accomplished in Iraq as a result of the allies efforts to fight terrorism. Women have a right to education, more people have clean water and electricity than ever before. Please notice we did not fix, secure, and protect the oil fields. We have been fixing infrastructure that was dilapidated under the palace building dictatorship of Saddam and the beneficiaries of our efforts are the free people of Iraq. We have stopped an entire society, the Kurds, from being slaughtered for having the audacity to disagree with the previous government.

"I feel bad carrying out my daily activities while people are suffering, Americans and Iraqis." If this person is going to "feel bad" then feel for the true suffering that was endured by these people when no one would help them to become free. Kurdish families and indeed whole towns were attacked with poison gas. These butchered defenseless people are who we should have felt bad for a long time ago.

The problem as I see it is that this war protester like so many others does not examine the facts but instead only reacts emotionally to vague statements like "Bush lied to us" or "this was is over oil". By the way if oil was all we really wanted we would have ignored the U.N. sanctions and happily traded with Iraq for oil. Here Saddam we only care about the oil so how about we guarantee to buy 5 million barrels a day, cash, and you guarantee us $30 a barrel oil for the next 10 years? Deal? cool and good luck with those pesky Kurds and women who want equal rights.

Check your facts and then think about this stuff people, quit dragging your family across country for an anti-war rally because you "feel bad". None of us feels good but those of us that seek out a few facts very quickly realize the price we are paying today will do more for humanity over that long term than anything else we could have AND DID try.
ARTICLE CITATION:
Title: War Protesters, Supporters Rally in D.C.
By LARRY MARGASAK and MATTHEW BARAKAT (Associated Press Writers)
From Associated PressMarch 18, 2007 1:05 AM EDT

WOW am I behind in blogging

2007-02-12T08:50:00.000-05:00

I have been disappointed in my blog. The primary issue is no one ever finds my blog to read and comment about. I used Google to search EXACT phrases on my blog and Google never even finds my blog. Unless I can completely correct this issue I see no value in blogging, hence my long abscence.

I know I need to look into this more but for now I am just sulking :(

Bill O'Reilly - Culture Warrior

2006-11-30T07:17:00.000-05:00

First let me set the foundation here and say that I am not for or against Mr. O'Reilly and to tell you the truth I knew very little about him when I picked up his new book "Culture Warrior". I had not read anything by Bill O'Reilley in the past and I have watched his show "The O'Reilly Factor" only a few times in the past. The reason I need to set this foundation is because of how many people I have run across lately that are rabidly opposed to this man and yet have not read his writings or watched his tv show either. People see me reading this book and immediately indicate disgust and ask me how I can believe the trash this man spews. This has happened more than once and from strangers as well as people I know. I politely explain this is my first exposure to him and then I ask what they thought about the book, the answer is always the same, they never read this book or any other by Bill O'Reilly. OK, then what was it about his TV show that turned you off? The general response boil down to "Fox news is a bunch of lies and I wouldn't watch his show to save my life"

These people are the mindless sheep of our country that will in fact sell us down the river because they will believe any feel good dribble the seculiar progressives espouse. If you are going to dislike Bill O'Reilly then do so based on facts and read his books so you know where you disagree.

I found the book to be well written with facts, that I could confirm, very well presented. Perhaps the real problem for people is understanding what is at stake takes too much effort and just going along with what "feels good" is easier. What is right and best for us is not always what feels good.

While I do not agree with every position Bill takes in the book I do agree completely with this"

"it is simply better public policy for the United States to stay close to the vision of the Founders, which includes independance from big government, hard work, personal responsibility, and looking out for your neighbor" p174, Culture Warrior

Tell me this, do you think this [read next paragraph] should be allowed for anyone that feels like having this done?

" I stood at the doctor's side and watched him perform a partial-birth abortion on a woman who was six months pregnant. The baby's heartbeat was clearly visible on the ultrasound screen. The doctor delivered the baby's body and arms, everything but his little head. The baby's body was moving. His little fingers were clasping together. He was kicking his feet. The doctor took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the back of the baby's head, and the baby's arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall. Then the doctor opened the scissors up. Then he stuck the high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby's brains out. Now the baby was completely limp." http://www.abortioninfo.net/facts/pba.shtml

Apparently if it feels good to us it does not matter how it feels to the baby.

This is the sort of thing that is allowed to go on as seculiar progressives try to eliminate personal responsibility and looking out for your neighbor as concepts in America.

If you disagree with me then read the book and post comments of substance. If you haven't read the book then we have nothing to discuss.

Gears of War Player Review

2006-11-13T00:07:00.000-05:00

Gears of War for the Xbox 360 has been a great deal of fun to play. The AI is pretty good, the graphics really are 2nd generation quality on the 360, and the story line is well supported with great cut scenes. One down side is the single player is very short. There are three difficulty levels: Casual, Hardcore and Insane. I played through the whole game in under 9 hours on the casual level and on Hardcore I have gotten through about 1/2 of the game in 5 hours.

My recommendation is folks rent this game and if you enjoy it enough and want to continue to play online then it might be worth purchasing. Honestly you can play through the single player a few times in a one week rental.

Marie Antoinette Movie was horrible

2006-11-06T20:42:00.000-05:00

This past weekend my son and I went to see the movie Marie Antoinette for extra credit in his French class. This movie was horrible almost from the start. The story was very disjointed, the transitions between scenes were too slow and almost incomprehensible. We were dragged through this movie and never were able to connect with any of the characters. The characters were flat and two dimensional with no story to even play with in most scenes.

Take my advice and rent the 1938 version of this movie.

How does a closet beta tester become official

2006-10-12T07:03:00.000-05:00

My friend Sparky has me hooked on Microsoft OneNote and helped me to get a beta installed that I currently use. As you know my friend Sparky is looking for employment elsewhere. While I do plan on staying in touch with Sparky I do wonder what the process is to let MS know "Hey I like this and want to be an official Beta tester for you, how I do dat?"

I am going to try and promote OneNote to my team and user our sharepoint server to store notebooks that we can share, this should be fun.

Oh My God! I might leave Xbox for PS3!

2006-10-11T07:36:00.000-05:00

Ok, many of you know I am an avid Xbox 360 and XboxLive gamer. I really love playing online games and video games in general. So much so that I also travel with my Xbox 360 and play from my motorhome over wifi and from hotels on business trips. Here is where the problem comes in. Many wifi providers require IE browser to authenticate into the wifi network. THE XBOX 360 HAS NO WEB BROWSER! So I get stuck offline about 90% of the time. Well according to this writeup the PS3 will have that browser I need.

Unlike the Xbox 360, the PlayStation will incorporate a browser so that gamers can surf the web via their console.

If I can surf the web then I can get access to those browser login pages I need to use to gain wifi network access.

Please Microsoft, please, please, add browser support so I can use IE on the Xbox 360 to log into wifi networks and then play my heart out.

Starbucks is really going to crap!

2006-09-28T11:14:00.000-05:00

For many years Starbucks would change the flavor of their coffee multiple times a week. Bold, Mild and Decaf move around and let us both explore and enjoy a variety of coffees. Then a couple years ago they flavors went to changing weekly. This was not as good but it was ok, 104 flavors a year seemed pretty good (I do not drink decaf). Now my Starbucks has stopped changing the flavor. They have had House Blend as the mild flavor for WEEKS and they tell me it will stay that way until the end of the year! If I wanted the same flavor coffee every week I would go to one of the Bread Company places.

Another thing that made Starbucks interesting is they would re-arrange their furniture from time to time. Reminded me of coming home from school and finding my Mom had moved everything around. Well it seems the district manager does not like this and has insisted that the furniture remain one way to facilitate getting more customers through more quickly. Excuse me but it is this kind of attitude, worrying about revenue above everything else, that has caused me to leave other businesses. And they have stopped changing their music selection as much too, instead of each Starbucks having a variety of cd's to play they all now must use that crappy Hear music service.

Certainly I want them to be profitable and I know moving customers through quick helps, having a consolidate music service reduces costs etc. but I go there for the atmosphere as much as anything and they have killed the atmosphere.

Layoffs suck all around

2006-09-25T07:12:00.000-05:00

A very good friend of mine has been laid off from the company we both work for. He is actually the friend who introduced me to blogging and opened my eyes to many other internet technologies. To be sure the layoff sucks most for him and his family during this time of uncertainty. At the same time it also sucks for those of us left behind who keep looking over our shoulders and wonder when the layoff bullet will finally hit us.

My friend, we will call him Sparky, has a valuable skill set that I think is really needed in the company so why then did the layoff hammer hit him? Like so many it is all about where you are in the company and not about your skills or value to the company. If you organization can save the company tons of money by shipping labor over seas to China or India or Costa Rica or even Canada then your organization will do that. Corporate America does not care that the average family income continues to drop year after year, they only care about cutting out the cost of labor as much as possible. Of course this does not extend to off-shoring our CEO's or Vice-Presidents.

I want to ask Sparky how the job hunt is going but I also don't want to rub salt in the wound since I am still employed. I want to tell him how much his friendship means to me but guys usually don't speak about such things. I want to apologize for not being a very good friend most of the time. Most of all though I want him to know how much I have appreciated his willingness to put up with me and open my eyes to so much in the world of technology.

I hope we can still see each other at Starbucks once in awhile Sparky.

Sincerely,

Eric

Don't take your eye off the immigration ball

2006-07-10T06:36:00.000-05:00

With all of the recent news about North Korea launching missiles and Iran refining weapons grade uranium it is easy to forget about other major issues. Illegal immigration is one of those issues and this issue is impacting every working American on a daily basis. Total employment is about 144 million right now. If illegal immigrants are anywhere between 11 and 15 million then those people are artificially diluting the labor force by as much as 10% and that is reflected in lower competition for labor which translates to lower wages for everyone.

Don't take your eye off the ball because anyone in this country that earns an average income is losing ground because of this issue.

Why do we owe illegal immigrants anything?

2006-05-01T20:10:00.000-05:00

I here a lot about it being impossible to remove 12 million illegal immigrants from the country and therefore we need to make them "legal" overnight and provide a path to earned citizenship. Excuse me but this country has never shied away from doing the impossible. Employers that employ illegal aliens must be severely punished and when the jobs dry up for the illegals then those illegals will go home. Every foreign citizen that wants to work in America or become an American citizen must do so according to the laws of this country. Illegal immigrants negatively impact everybody from an economic stand point and they prevent our capitalist system from working as designed. The only thing businesses are worried about is their profits. Capitalism does not guarantee any business a profit and hiring illegal immigrants to avoid raising labor rates to what legal citizens are willing to work for is unethical business at best.

Hiring illegal immigrants is an unethical business practice

2006-04-26T06:47:00.000-05:00

The mantra of industries that hire a large number of illegal immigrants is that the work they need done is not something Americans are willing to do. Product and Service pricing is set by many factors that most economists would boil down into supply and demand. What no one in these industries will admit is that labor rates are set by a very similar set of factors that also boils down to supply and demand. If you demand labor (employees) and you do not get enough candidates then you must increase the compensation offered or make other changes to attract more potential employees. The same way you lower or raise prices to create demand for products or services.

A representative of the landscaping industry was on WGST Atlanta the other morning with Tom Hughes and explained that American children are not raised to do this kind of work. He also explained that the average wage in his industry was good at $9.50 an hour. And from his perspective, with unemployment at 5% there just are not enough workers available.

First lest talk about American Children and how they are "raised".
In 1999 (the latest year I could find data on)
62.9% of high school graduates enrolled in a college.
70.6% of the 17 year old population was high school graduates.
46.6$ of students completed a 4 year BA/BS degree
(Data on college completion rates is for the prior period, BA degree complete in 1995-1996)

The available labor pool for industries like landscaping would seem to be fairly significant.
For every 100 seventeen year olds in 1999 there were
30 without a high school diploma
26 with high school diploma that did not go on to college

I looked at over a dozen landscape labor job postings and almost none listed any qualifications required. Here are the requirements for one landscaping job listed on the web
Job Requirements
Required Qualifications:
Skills Requirements:
GENERAL LABOR, landscape

Note that a high school diploma does not seem to be required and so the labor pool of 56 out of every 100 seventeen year olds would be available for these jobs. The Landscaping industry must now compete for these employees with other companies and industries. This is where supply and demand starts to set labor rates for an industry like landscaping.

"Wal-Mart claims an hourly wage of $9.68 an hour is its national average" While some independent research indicates this amount is lower I will use both what Wal-Mart claims and what the landscaping industry representative have said as fact for this discussion.

It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that the average 18 year old would rather work in a low stress air conditioned Wal-Mart then doing the more grueling work involved with landscaping, FOR THE SAME WAGE. So what does a landscaping company need to do if it is going to run an ethical business? They need to increase their compensation to attract employees away from employers like Wal-Mart. This is the capitalist system. Yes this will raise their costs and prices and will lead to a thinning of the heard as far as landscaping companies go but that is legal, ethical, and natural business in a capitalist system.

Employing illegal immigrants artificially manipulates the labor side of supply and demand. It brings in a labor pool that under legal circumstances would be just as happy to work for Wal-Mart but cannot do so easily. The advantage to the landscaping industry is lower wages, reduced costs and increased profits. If this industry played by the rules it would create higher paying jobs that folks from Wal-Mart could move to in order to improve their situations. Because illegal immigrants are so heavily used this opportunity has been eliminated for citizens of America.

Consider that a fulltime worker at $9.50 an hour is ending up with about $15,000 in their pocket (80% of gross income). If the industry played by the rules the compensation they provide would have to increase to attract enough laborers. To keep costs down the industry would have to become more efficient in other ways. This is how our system is supposed to work.

Keeping costs and prices down is not a valid justification for employing illegal immigrants and so the industry tries to hide behind the fallacy that "this is work Americans are unwilling to do". Shame on any industry that wants the sales side to play by the rules of supply and demand but refuses to allow the labor side of business to play by those same rules, unethical business practices are never justifiable. Remember the goal of a capitalist system is NOT to keep you in business.

Final note: Tom Hughes indicated his wife hires a couple women to do their landscaping on a regular basis while the person across the street has a crew of potentially illegal immigrants show up and do his landscaping. Tom is paying more money for his service and lamented that he is a fool for paying more. I strongly disagree and I applaud Tom for playing by the rules and insisting his contractor do the same when it comes to employment.

Protecting my Xbox 360 investment

2006-04-21T07:17:00.000-05:00

Well it happened to me, my Xbox 360 died a horrible "internal software error" death. The unit was still under warranty so it is being repaired/replaced for free. This experience has me thinking more about protecting my huge investment in this system and the associated games. I plan on being on this platform for at least the next four years and really don't want to run into more trouble.

Let me say here and now that the unit has run perfectly until this event and I have no complaints about the unit at all.

So what am I to do if I want to protect my investment. Well I am going to do three things to protect this investment.

1. I will purchase the extended warranty, the price is reasonable for two years and gives me peace of mind.

2. I have not had any indication of heat problems BUT you can never keep technology like the Xbox 360 too cool, and the cooler you keep high tech devices the longer their life in my opinion. I am buying an accessory to help keep the unit cooler. The cooler I have chosen is the Nyko Intercooler 360. The unit was only $20 and every review I could find from users were very positive.

3. Because the 360 allows the covers to be removed (for replacing with cool skins) I will be diligently blowing the unit clean with compressed air on a quarterly basis to avoid a dust build up.

I believe this combination of things will help to avoid any problems related to heat as well as give me a comfortable back stop if the unit should up and die again on me.

Illegal immigration is just that ILLEGAL!

2006-03-27T08:15:00.000-05:00

I believe we should strengthen our borders, and punish employers seriously for hiring illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants would not come into this country if there was no employment. Employers that higher illegal immigrants are do it to contribute to our economy. They are hiring these folks to take advantage of people that are willing to work for wages far below the value of the work. Consumers want low cost but I do not believe consumers want low cost at the expense of other people being taken advantage. That is EXACTLY what employers that hire illegal immigrants are doing. They are taking advantage of people to line their own pockets with more cash. Market forces should set the wage rate and price of goods. That relationship should not be manipulated by keeping people poor.

Perhaps some of these jobs are not filled by legal immigrants and citizens because the wages do not fir the work. Employers should raise the wages and the prices to be able to provide these products, they should not take advantage of the poor from other countries so we can have cheap apples and low cost landscaping.

President Bush is too polite at press conferences

2006-03-22T07:18:00.000-05:00

I find it amazing that liberal biased media journalists keep asking the President why he "wanted to go to war". Not only did he not want to go to war but once war was upon us it is the Congress that approved going to war. Why then did these Congress men and women approve going to war. For many obvious reasons that are as true today as they were then. Terrorists brought the war to us and we took our response to them where they live, train, and recruit. The major media outlets seem to want to ignore everything that is true about this situation and only concentrate on the clarity of things brought by hind sight. Journalists that documented the use of WMD's against Kurds in Iraq are suddenly indignant that intelligence reports before the war were not 100% accurate about WMD's. Excuse me, if Saddam used them once, he would certainly be willing to use them again and you can only use the best intelligence you have to make the best decision you can. That goes for Congress as well as the President.

I still believe that we are in Iraq and Afghanistan for all the correct reasons. Eliminating terrorist strong holds, bringing freedom to millions that yearn for it, and trying to create some stability in an area of the world that is historically instable. Perhaps if we had been as pre-emptive in 1939 then millions of people would not have been exterminated by the Nazi regime across Europe and Russia.

I am part of the BlogOsphere and I support the President

2006-03-21T07:24:00.000-05:00

Starting with Rush Limbaugh there seems to be a growing opinion that the BlogOSphere is comprised of extreme liberal nut jobs. Today I heard Tom Hughes, on WGST 640am radio in Atlanta, connect the term extreme left democrats and blogosphere. I realize that organizations like moveon.org are out there on the extreme but not all bloggers are liberals. I am a conservative but rather than preaching fear and half truths on my blog about the President I choose to blog about life in general. Apparently conservative bloggers need to start dedicating some of their blogging to supporting the conservative values we agree with.

According to Tom Hughes, the blogosphere is very angry over the war in Iraq. I am always amazed at how selfish and self-centered liberals can be. Here we are a country that millions around the world have come to for the sole purpose of having freedom and yet we are suppose to ignore regimes like Saddams and NOT help others to have the simple freedom of choosing their own destiny. OH! That's right, liberals know better what is good for us, we should sit down, shutup, and do as they see fit. I do not think so.

I know that bringing freedom to Afghanistan and Iraq has cost us and is costing us American lives. This is not a sacrifice that I or any of us should commit to easily. When we do commit to this sacrifice it must be for something as important and critical to human beings as freedom. We can argue over how Iraq got to where it was for ever and never agree to what should or should not have been done, etc. I do not shy away from that debate I only point out that the current objective of bringing freedom to an enslaved, downtrodden, and abused populace is of such high importance to humanity that at this point it does not really matter how we got here. What matters is the smiling faces of millions of purple fingered people in Iraq that have tasted true freedom and are hungry for more.

As estimated 8 million people, 60 percent of eligible voters braved violence and calls for a boycott to vote in Iraq. A string of homicide bombings and mortar volleys killed at least 44 people, including nine attackers.

Americans suffer no such threats at 99% of polling places and yet we do not vote in such enthusiastic numbers, that is the power of people that are hungry for freedom, we take our freedom for granted.

99% of Iraqis's are praying America does not abandon them until they can truly stand on their own against the 1% ooppressorsrs that wish to return to the good old days of the powerful few dominating and controlling the lives of the many. Hey, wait a minute, isn't that what liberals want to do to us? Hmmm, maybe their anger with the war in Iraq is making sense now.

Liberals seem to forget or perhaps refuse to understand that conservatives do not "support war" but rather that we understand that in the course of history it is sometimenecessaryry to go to war in order to bring freedom and stability to an enslaved nation. War is NOT the first course of action but it is a course that once chosen cannot be abandoned for selfish reasons leaving other people to suffer once again under the yoke of oppression.

Were liberals so self-centered that the ONLY reason they approved the war in Iraq was because of weapons of mass destruction? Did the suffering oIraqis's, the documented brutaatrocitieses of Saddam's regime, and the DOCUMENTED use of weapons of mass destruction against the Kurds have nothing to do with their decision to support the war? If liberals reasons for supporting getting into the war were in fact so self-centered and narrow then it makes perfect sense that liberals now want out. The war serves no purpose for them and they could care less about what it means to humanity, the future of millions of people in the middle east, or the fact that turning tail and running would reduce our ability to help others in the future.

Let me close by saying that I appreciate the sacrifices that our military men, women, and families have made since 1776 to protect the freedoms we all enjoy and to bring freedom to others. The Germans, the FrenchIsraelis's, and countless others have the freedoms they enjoy as a direct result of our country putting the importance of freedom above the preservation of our own lives. Well maybe the liberals don't but I think the majority of Americans do, and if we don't we are doomed to losing our freedoms very soon.

Thanks for reading, Eric

The following words are designed to help search engines find this article
blogosphere blog-o-sphere blog o sphere

Call of Duty 2 needs an upgrade!

2006-03-20T08:14:00.001-05:00

I have been playing Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and this game has the kind of lobby system for online play that I wish COD2 had. GRAW is first of all as awesome of a game as COD2, killer graphics, fun game play, and for people like me that love playing but suck we can kill bots in the online game.

I really want COD2 to do a major upgrade and give us a great lobby system. Another problem might be achievements, GRAW gives achievement points for online play while COD2 does not.

On a side note, I believe it would be best if all 360 games(that are xbox live enabled) provided 1000 achievement points for campaign and another 1000 points for online play, or 500 each at a minimum. Today it is a mixed bag where some games divide points and others do all points for the campaign

Call of Duty 2 needs an upgrade!

2006-03-20T08:14:00.000-05:00

Quake 4 Online play is not so awesome

2006-02-21T07:51:00.000-05:00

Quake 4's online play through Xboxlive works great and is a pretty fun time except for one minor little quirk that is aggravating to some of us. Jumping. People spend so much time jumping around like a bunch of hopping bunnies that the game is no longer any fun for those that want a first person shooter with some realism to it. The jumping is very fast, frantic, and short unlike Halo 2 where jumps are relatively slow and long. This is where Perfect Dark Zero really excels for folks that like first person shooters, there is no jumping, but you do tuck and roll in a realistic fashion and at a realistic speed in any of 4 directions.

I you want to spend your time jumping like a bunny and hunting bunny wabbits then Quake 4 online play is for you. If on the other hand you want more realism in the movement of a first person shooter then switch to Perfect Dark Zero.

Westinghouse 37" LCD HDTV Monitor LVM-37W1

2006-02-10T07:50:00.000-05:00

I finally picked up a wide screen monitor for my entertainment center. The unit is made in China by a company that uses the Westinghouse name on the box. I found this unit to be the best all around unit for my needs. And one of the very few that will do 1080P.

The picture quality is EXCEPTIONAL, I could not be happier with the picture. This unit will accept 420P, 420I, 720P, 720I, 1080I and the important difference for me is that it will accept 1080P which helps me be prepared for the future. This was one of the few that had a resolution of 1920 X 1080, almost every other unit was X 768. Other units cost more for the lower resolution.

One warning about stores that sell this and other units. All the stores make the picture look perfect on the units they want to sell, which is usually the more expensive ones. Don't trust the picture you see at the store. Look for the features you want and the price you are willing to pay. I picked up this unit for $1499. At home this units picture looks as good or better then units selling for over $3000 at the store.

Display modes allow you to show standard TV in a square box with black bars on the side or a zoom feature puts the picture up to full screen mode. 420I looks good in the zoom unless there is a very dark background then the pixelation from the zoom appears. Switching to the standard TV view resolves this completely. The Xbox 360 games are so awesome looking as to be unbelievable. I hooked up the laptop for the first time and I am not sure how I will ever live with a normal monitor or laptop screen at home again. Having the real estate to use with the laptop and using the Bluetooth keyboard/mouse from the lazy boy chair is something I could definitely get used to :)

The number of inputs was important to me because I really hate to use a switch box to move between different video sources. I have the following components hooked up

Xbox 360 Component Video 1
Xbox Component Video 2
DishNetwork DVR AV (I am considering moving this to the S video port instead)
Laptop VGA port

This still leaves two DVI inputs for the future

Now my quest is to put a unit like this in every room of the house!

Xbox 360 Condemned Game

2006-02-07T08:37:00.000-05:00

In this game you are a federal agent that is accused of shooting two police officers. A stranger that was a friend of your dad helps you escape capture so that you can hunt down the real killer. There are minimal traditional weapons in this game such as hand gun and shot gun. The primary weapons are bashing weapons such as steam pipes, rebar, fire axe, sledge hammer, etc. You also have investigative tools such as black light and digital camera that you use to collect evidence. That evidence is sent through your cell phone to the lab who gives you results and help along the way. The graphics are smooth but very unimpressive and really this game is hardly as good as a standard Xbox 1 game.

This game is a little too dark for me. I am up to level 4 and I have spent the entire time having to use a flashlight and grope through the dark. This gets tedious and makes the game feel like graphics were an afterthought. I prefer games that are more balanced when it comes to using a flashlight. Yes it is cool and should be needed during some of the game but the flashlight should also not be needed during some of the game as well.

This game is definitely a rental before you buy.

XBOX 360 - Quake 4 is AWESOME!

2006-02-02T08:15:00.000-05:00

This game is by far the best overall game so far that I have played on the Xbox 360. The game play is smooth, graphics are excellent, and the online play rivals Halo 2.

There are a wide variety of reviews of this game with weapon details, in game pictures, etc. so I will keep my review short. The game play is just awesome for a first person shooter and if you enjoy the thrill of fighting evil you need this game for your 360.

Try this link for a good discussion and information on Quake 4
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/quake4/preview_6124476.html

Xbox 360 - Call of Duty 2

2006-01-24T07:24:00.000-05:00

My Setup: Xbox 360, 27" Flat Screen 4:3 TV

I picked up Call of Duty 2 with my 360 back in November and I am still enjoying playing the campaign mode. The graphics are very realistic and the 360 has the power to show think like a soldiers breath in the cold Russian air. Frame rate is high enough to make the entire game run very smoothly with no slow down or jerking during extreme amounts of action.

Video cut scenes explain the current situation and take you from battles in Russia to the African Desert and onto the D-Day invasion. Mission objectives are added as each mission moves along. Most of the objective updates are spoken by commanders during battles. The dialogue is realistic with mission discussions happening all around you, and like I said, some are directions to you by commanders during a battle that give you new objectives.

The action shifts gears from slow to extremely fast action during the game. You can be slowly sniping the Germans during one objective and then in the next you have to really think and move to avoid being killed during an ambush.

I played online only a couple of times, the Live ability of this game is horrid. The problem here is that the Halo 2 lobby system has really spoiled those of us that like to form parties, chat in the lobby about what we are going to play, etc. COD2 does not offer this sort of live environment. I will be trying it some more and experimenting with the live portion in the future so expect an update on this part at some point.

My current gamer score is 760 with four levels yet to complete on the hardest difficulty setting.

I highly recommend this game as a great first person shooter campaign game and military history buffs will appreciate the realism and fairly accurate recreations the game uses.

XBOX 360 ROCKS

2006-01-19T07:42:00.000-05:00

Over the next few weeks I will be posting my opinions about the Xbox 360 and the games I own. This week I examine the system itself, next week I will start game reviews.

I was one of the lucky ones that pre-ordered the Xbox 360 and received my unit on the launch day back in November. I got the $399 full system, an extra controller, and two games. The games I got at the time were Perfect Dark Zero and Call of Duty 2. Since I have gotten Project Gotham Racing 3 and Quake 4. Following are my opinions after a couple months use on a normal 4:3 flat screen 27" TV.

Xbox 360
THE SYSTEM
The graphics are fantastically crisp, clear, and smooth in all of the games. The graphic detail is very impressive and includes little extras that I have not seen in other game systems. In Call of Duty 2 you can see someone's breath in the cold Russian air, lip movement is more natural and matches better what is being said, facial features overall are much more natural. The Dashboard is a set of tabs or folders and is very easy to navigate. The system has the ability to download game updates, videos, skins and Microsoft Arcade games to play, one game is included free, Hexic HD, a variation on Tetris. Most of the downloads are for sale such as the arcade games. Rather than charge the payment to your credit card you have to purchase "gold points" that are used to pay for any downloads. This means Microsoft gets money up front for what you will buy in the future. There are FREE movie trailers, many in both 720p and 420p, that can be downloaded. Downloads on my 1.5Mbs DSL are much faster on the 360 then they are on the Xbox 1.

The system definitely runs HOT and I had to move the system from a slot in my entertainment center with 3 inches clearance all around to a slot with 6 inches of clearance all around. I plan on installing some sort of supplemental fan system to move heat out of the slot it resides in. This heat problem is likely why Microsoft moved the hefty power supply into an external enclosure instead of leaving it in the system.

THE WIRELESS CONTROLLER
The wireless controller is 2.4ghz and works flawlessly while my 2.4ghz wireless network is busy. Ergonomically the controller is well designed, feeling very comfortable in my hands and not causing finger fatigue. The white and black buttons of the Xbox 1 controller are now secondary trigger buttons above each of the triggers. This took some getting used to since I would suddenly push one while furiously working the trigger.

The Live headset that came with the system plugs into the back of the controller, it includes a mute slide switch and volume control. The head set SUCKS in almost all aspects. Sound quality is horrible, the sound breaks up and the headset is not very comfortable on my skull. Some of this could be the audio circuitry in the controller itself. I am looking forward to this being a situation that is drastically improved by the after market industry. Plantronics WHERE ARE YOU?!

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY
The only backward compatible game I have played on the unit is Halo 2. The download to enable this went fine, and since the first download there has been another update to the backward compatibility for Halo 2. H2 on the 360 does not seem as responsive to me and I seem perform better playing H2 on the Xbox 1. Others I have asked had split opinion on this, some notice a difference and some do not. Backward compatibility ONLY works if you have the full system with hard disk drive or buy the disk drive option for the core system.

CONCLUSION
The 360 definitely rocks and from my perspective has already paid for itself in enjoyment. Usually I am one of those that waits until the price drops and I am always a year or two behind on consoles. This time I am EXTREMELY glad that I did not wait because I am really enjoying this system.

LINKS
Check out these links for additional information
http://www.xbox.com
http://www.majornelson.com

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

2006-01-12T06:56:00.000-05:00

The holidays went by too fast again this year, I love this holiday time of year and get real joy from concentrating on what is good and fun about the holidays instead of grouching over the "hassle" of the holidays. I hope all of you were able to concentrate on the positive this year and not get dragged down into a grinch mood. And I cannot wait until next Christmas :)

BlueTooth headsets, New status fashion for Yuppies?

2005-12-14T08:30:00.001-05:00

I know that cordless cell phone headsets/earbuds are needed to drive safely and free us from the cords flapping in the wind, but are they for wearing all the time. I have noticed lately people, mostly men, walking around with bluetooth cell phone earbuds in their ear all the time. Most of the time these folks have not been on the phone and to me they just look silly. Actually they look like they have taken the first step toward becoming a real Borg (see Star Trek).

When I end up getting my next cell phone I will probably join the ranks of the bluetooth users but I will not wear the thing like a new piece of ear jewelry. Perhaps a good rumor about bluetooth headsets causing earlobe cancer would get people to take them off and put them in thier pocket. At least then we have a new joke, "is that a bluetooth in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

Regardless of who you are I want you to have a Merry Christmas

2005-12-06T07:32:00.000-05:00

The current cartoon at illwillpress explains exactly how I feel about people that want to remove the Christmas word from our vocabulary at this time of year. If our country is tolerant of all why would anyone be upset by the Merry Christmas greeting or the use of the term Christmas Tree at a holiday display somewhere. I am certainly not upset when my Jewish friends wish me a Happy Hanukkah or when other folks offer their cherished greetings to me. I want everyone to have a Merry Christmas regardless of religion, non-religion, or any other factor of their life. I will continue to wish people a Merry Christmas just the same as I wish folks a Happy Halloween, a joyous New Year, or a Grand Groundhog Day. Yes I am Christian but I am not using the term to convert anyone, I use it because in my Christian heart I truly hope everyone I know has a Merry Christmas at this time of year no matter what holiday they do or do not celebrate.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Husbands rights with abortion

2005-11-03T07:11:00.000-05:00

The continuing witch hunt by democrats against Samuel Alito Jr. , Supreme Court nominee, has raised a concern based on Alito's dissenting opinion in 1991 that would require a woman to tell her husband before having an abortion.

"In a release Monday, Planned Parenthood interim president Karen Pearl said Alito's opinion shows "callous disregard of battered women who would be affected by the statute." She said if he is confirmed, Alito "would undermine basic reproductive rights" [source].

So why does the husband have no reproductive rights? The fetus has no right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness but why does the husband have no reproductive rights? Is it because modern women are having so many affairs that they are trying to hide the pregnancy from their husband? Is it because only the mother can determine if the child is worth keeping? Or is it because they are feminists and they are in our face, on everything, including the elimination of fathers rights.

How can we on the one hand force fathers that do not want children to pay child support while on the other hand not give them some say on wanting to support a child that is currently unborn. This is not about eliminating abortion 'rights', it is about ensuring the rights of fathers as much as mothers. And please don't say "it is her body" because this is not about the woman's body, it is about the child's body.

low tech frustratingly fun game @ www.urbandead.com

2005-10-25T06:14:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I ran across a fun game online called Urban Dead. The game is a simple low tech game that has zombies fighting human survivors in the city of Malton. Humans start out as one of several character types with different default skills and by earning experience points the humans can buy other skills. My first character was a medic and I earned experience points by finding people and healing them. Now I have earned the diagnose skill so I see what everybody's hit points are and I can find folks to heal much faster.

This game is very addictive but because the number of actions is limited to only 50 each day there is no way for the game to consume more then 10 minutes of time each day, but those 10 minutes have become a real fun break part of my day.

Give it a try, if anyone reads this blog :)

Are there American companies anymore?

2005-10-24T06:58:00.000-05:00

After a recent speech by a Fortune 50 CEO I started to wonder if there are American companies anymore or if Global corporations are pretty much all that exist anymore. Now I know there are many small and medium businesses that do a high % or 100% of their business in America. What I wonder about is the Fortune 500, how many of them are actually benefiting their country of origin or even care about their home country. I see Walmart giving $23+ million to Katrina relief while other companies that once were American give the typical $1 million, despite having billions in cash reserves (I am not counting matching funds just direct corporate donation).

Global competition demands that we meet the price/demand curve on products and so many corporations have become global not because of desire but rather for survival. Companies like GM, despite being global, are still in financial trouble but most companies insist they go global to reduce costs and remain competitive.

We as consumers in our quest for ever cheaper prices have changed our buying habits to the point that we are global consumers.

What came first the global consumer or the global corporation? And if you are a global consumer can you really complain that average family wages where you live are dropping?

The daily 10 minute battle against evil is good for the soul

2005-10-18T18:47:00.000-05:00

I recently started playing http://www.urbandead.com and it has become a quick fun part of my day. In this game every user is either a survivor trying to kill zombies or a zombie trying to kill survivors. I actually play several characters and because everyone is restricted to only 50 moves a day (you would be surprised how fast it goes) the game does not take much time. This game is extremely low tech but still a fun break during my day. I can't stop to fire up xbox during the work day but a quick 15 minute break to earn experience points and take care of evil is easy enough to do. Try it, it may be low tech but its still fun and you goal oriented people will love the ability to turn experience points into new skills.

People are a burden to corporate America.....

2005-10-07T07:06:00.000-05:00

Dear Employees,

You are too expensive for us. Yes, we know that during tight employment times we drove up wages almost uncontrollably to fight for your skills, and we used to care about your welfare which drove up benefit costs, but now all that has changed. You see there are college educated people in other countries that will work for 1/10th of what we are paying you and there are tons of these folks available. They don't buy much as consumers but we know American consumers will buy lots of our stuff, if the price is cheaper.

The continued reduction in average family income in America is not our problem because we are lowering our prices to help your reduced wages still buy more. And please understand, as soon as we can find even cheaper resources elsewhere then the current employees in {Insert Country Here} we will abandon them as well. If all goes well we expect to automate 99% of your jobs in the next century and then we will not be bothered with actually having to employ any humans.

Signed,

Greedy Corporations

NOTE TO MARKETING COMPUTER: Please design marketing campaign to sell our products to robots, humans will be out of money soon.

Isreal is out but it does not seem to be enough

2005-09-29T06:27:00.000-05:00

For years many have believed that Israel stayed in hot water with Palastinians because of their occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. The occupation caused fragmentation among mixed communities and other issues. Well, Israel is out of the Gaza completely but it seems they have not escaped the hot water. A rocket barrage was launched from Gaza at Israeli towns across the border.

Militants in the Gaza have no reason left to attack Isreal. Start to build your country and stop bothering others. If Hamas and others continue their terrorist attacks from unoccupied territories then I would expect Israel to retake those areas and this time remove every Palastinian in them. When this happens the free world no longer has any excuse to find fault with Israel. Israel has done its part by leaving these areas.

Flooding is not our problem say insurance companies

2005-09-19T07:24:00.000-05:00

Much of the damage in the gulf coast is caused by flooding rather then by wind, flying debris or other things covered by standard home owners policies. Because of this many insurance companies will not be paying claims, after all flooding is specifically excluded from home owners policies.

So which came first and was the root cause? The hurricane or the flooding?

I think the root cause is obvious and this is not like the flooding caused from torrential rains that do no damage other than flooding. The mid-western flooding of 1993 was a good example of flooding being the real problem and I would accept that flood insurance was needed. In the case of the aftermath of devastation left by a hurricane I think insurance companies claiming it is a flood problem is criminal, even in the case of New Orleans.

I will not miss Mark after he retires

2005-09-13T07:42:00.000-05:00

A great friend of mine, Mark, is one of the many individuals that have accepted early retirement from my company. Many will ask if he is such a great friend why will he not be missed? Simple, I will not let Mark exit my life other than work. Mark and I are several states apart but I will make every effort to continue our friendship and not get disconnected from him. I have not always been the best at continuing links between myself and friends through the years. Mark is someone that I truly want to remain in touch with until the bitter end when my corpse enters the ground.

Thanks Mark for being a great friend, a great co-worker, and for always being there when I needed someone to vent with over the corporate good times and the corporate bullshit we live through every year.

You will not be missed because I will not let you exit my life so easily :)

Does the Military have an EXIT STRATEGY from Hurricane Katrina?

2005-09-06T11:37:00.000-05:00

When thrust into a crisis at home Americans are quick to respond without question to the needs of their neighbors. Americans are also quick to complain that help did not arrive fast enough and not enough is done. Despite Herculean efforts by the country and our military to help the liberal media hunts down the disgruntled and quickly puts them on the air.

I don’t mind disgruntled people so much since people in crisis are desperate to get help quickly and there is always something we could do better to help. But then the liberal media actually asks the military how long they will be helping the Gulf Coast area. The military provided the correct response; we will be here until the job is done. Now for some reason the liberal media does not ask what the military exit strategy is for the Gulf Coast. How can we as Americans be so self-centered to assume that helping others must have an exit strategy while helping ourselves should go on until the job is completed?

Before you tell me not to compare war to a hurricane you had better listen to what is reported on all media, liberal and conservative, about the hurricane. It is a devastated war zone like area. Why devastation exists is obvious in both the Middle East and the Gulf Coast, now and in the past. How quickly we forget the devastation caused by an unchecked Hitler and a hurricane called Camille, both of which required us to be there until the job was done.

We are helping Iraq and Afghanistan to become a free people that can guide their own future instead of living under tyranny as we did in the 1700’s. There is no psychic ability to predict when these jobs will be done and the media in asking for one is telling America that getting out is the goal. Getting out is clearly not the goal for the Gulf Coast or for the Middle East. For the Gulf Coast the goal is to help everyone get back on their feet and rebuild their lives. For Iraq and Afghanistan the goal is to help people who have never been allowed to stand on their own two feet to do exactly that, and help them to rebuild counties.

Stop asking for an exit strategy in both cases and start asking what we can do to help the job to get done completely and effectively. NOT what others can do better, but what we can start to do to help.

Does God Help Them That Help Themselves?

2005-09-02T10:18:00.000-05:00

This is a famous "Biblical" quote that is of course not in the bible but is really a quote from Benjamin Franklin. Many people to this day, including myself, believe that there is truth in these words while many will argue that this is in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

From http://www.acts17-11.com/cows_helps.html

More important, this "verse" is unbiblical in its meaning. It is exactly the opposite of the message of scripture.
Jer 17:5 (NIV) This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD."
Prov 28:26 (NIV) He who trusts in himself is a fool...

These statements are typical of those that believe this statement is false. Notice though that the statement does not tell us to trust ourselves or depend on flesh for our strength. In fact the statement to me assumes that God is on our side and if we start moving God has a more opportunity to help us and we trust that he will. It is not our flesh that we depend on for spiritual strength but rather it is what we depend on to take actions that the Lord would appreciate and support.

Considering the times that Ben lived in I think that America came into existence and serves the will of God because people gathered together and helped themselves. I think God has been helping us ever since but how much help can he be if all we do is stand still. To a great degree our isolationist, do nothing and stand still, attitude led to two world wars. Lets not do that again.

I am not a Bible scholar, I am a simple man who believes in God and believes that God works through our actions and not in place of our actions.

Cobb County Appeals Laptop Ruling

2005-08-26T06:18:00.000-05:00

In a previous post I commented on the Cobb County School Board plan to provide laptops to every high school student and middle school student. The $100+ million laptop program was to be paid for by a Special Purpose Location Option Sales Tax that I had voted for. My concerns were:

1. This was not part of the SPLOST explanation voters were given
2. The choice of Apple did not provide mainstream technology and applications to students
3. The predicted costs kept escalating

A judge eventually agreed with my #1 and told the county to cancel the program because voters were not completely informed on this as part of the SPLOST vote. The school system hired a private investigation firm to review the entire situation and process. While this report did not exactly agree with my #2 the findings were extremely significant and vindicated my #2.
"An investigation into the program said that the school system "deceived the public" in choosing [...] Apple as the company to supply it with laptop computers."

Well, it seems the Cobb County school system has money to burn because they have decided to appeal the judges ruling. This is despite significant public outcry against the program, the resignation of the school superintendent, and a damning review by the investigation firm the school system hired to review the laptop program. The school board canceled the program and yet the school board is still choosing to spend financial resources on an appeal.

The board should give it up and let go. There are many other educational needs that should be concentrated on and the money going to lawyers on this should be spent helping students.

Given the chance I will definitely vote against all incumbents on the school board and I will vote against the next SPLOST. We the citizens of Cobb County need to send a very strong message to our chosen representatives that deceiving us is unacceptable. Politicians thrive on power and money is power. By voting down the next SPLOST we send a very strong and painful message to politicians. In return they will try to scare us with end of the world scenarios if the SPLOST is not approved, hogwash I say to that.

Are terminators the future or are they here today?

2005-08-15T06:51:00.000-05:00

Today there are military robots, drones, pilotless aircraft, robot sentries, and even bomb robots in use by the military and civilian police forces. These machines are clearly the first step on the path to what is depicted in the Terminator movies. The Talon military robot has been in use since 2000, and we have all seen Honda's Osimo human shaped walking robot.

http://www.gizmohighway.com/robotics/talon_robot.htm
http://www.gizmohighway.com/robotics/asimo.htm

Now a Japanese scientist has created an extremely early version of a human looking android. Ironic that he chose to make the first one female since females are the more vicious gender of the human species. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4714135.stm

At least in the terminator movies the female came later and not at first :)

And of course the illustrious DARPA has been working seriously, along with many educational institutions, on creating true artificial intelligence.

"DARPA spends $29 million per year on its Perceptive Assistant That Learns program, which develops robots programmed to think. The agency and its contractors will first develop an architecture that considers reasoning, learning, perception, language and action for robots, he said." http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0419/feat-brachman-04-19-04.asp

Many of the most wonderful and the most destructive human capabilities have come about in very similar ways. Little pieces worked on by separate endeavors that when brought together become dangerous to man kind. I doubt Einstein thought much about his calculations and I doubt the people that contributed to the creation of "conventional explosives" saw the potential for them to light off an atomic bomb. But bring together the knowledge of many areas and we create the scariest explosive device known to man.

What will happen when we bring together all of the work to create terminators or have we already and we just don't know it yet?

I am back!

2005-08-15T06:49:00.000-05:00

Well, I am finally done with my bachelors degree and now I have the time to get back to blogging, among other things. I will be trying to blog a few times a week and I will try to create some more interesting blogs this time around.

Thanks

I miss blogging......

2005-08-03T06:36:00.000-05:00

I have really missed blogging about current events and some of the things I am doing in my life. I have been doubling up courses at school to finish my BA ahead of time by about 4 months. I am in the last two weeks of the last class. If I can hold my grade up in this class I will graduate Summa Cum Laude.

I promise lots more blogging after this class ends. After all I have to start talking about camping, and house selling strategies as well as Christmas. YES it is never too early to talk about Christmas.

Getting to the light at the end of the tunnel, soon

2005-05-07T15:14:00.000-05:00

Well I have decided to double up classes a the University of Phoenix to try and get to graduation sooner. I really want to get this over with at this point and if I double up a few classes I could be done by end of August. If I do not double up I would be in school through the end of November and I really want to get back to my family. The strain, of time away from the family from working one of those 60 hour a week jobs plus schooling, is really starting to show. The issue is for my family and me, I miss being with them and they feel as if I have disappeared from the planet.

I don't regret going to school, what I regret was being so stupid as a younger man and not doing it early in life. One good thing I guess is that my son has told me he does not want to wait like me and he will be going to college after high school.

My bloging will be light for the next few months but other than my friend Steven, who by the way I need to get a big apology to on another topic, I doubt my lack of blogging will be missed.

Thanks for your patience.

Eric has not left the Internet

2005-04-22T07:34:00.000-05:00

I know I do not have many regular readers but for those that stop by on occasion, (thanks Steven) I just wanted to let you know that I am still here but completely buried by school work right now. Public Relations was an unbelievable amount of work and the Global Business Strategies class that just started is even more work.

Bare with me and as soon as possible I will once again impress you with my blog delivered thoughts.

Thanks,

Regular Guy

Character is how a company behaves when no one is blogging about it

2005-03-15T07:38:00.000-05:00

Should a person lose the right to free speech because they are an employee of a company? How many of the wrongs in the world would have gone on forever if people were not allowed to write about them and open the world’s eyes. Another article recently from Internetweek.com discusses just how and why blogging about work is risky business. In one section the comment is made that “While some people may argue that blogging is part of our right to free speech, experts say that constitutional right doesn't protect a person from the repercussions of speaking out.” Well just what good is any right if those that disagree can take punitive actions against you? I and others have strong opinions about Cobb County wasting tax money on iBooks, should we lose our homes and be forced out of the county because of this? For those that say the government is different I would say that your employer has much more sway over your well being, and that of your family than just about any government agency.

So why then should employers be allowed to discipline employees for engaging in one of our constitutional rights?

There was a time when employees were beaten and even killed by company enforcers for speaking out publicly about cruel working conditions. Early last century there were no child labor laws and employees were used as cannon fodder for the business men of the time to become richer with no regard for anything close to human rights we take for granted today.

Employee rights in this century must start to revolve around the connected world we live in today. Opinions should not be grounds for punishment from any entity, even employers, in this day and age. Companies are fond of telling an employee how there is no cradle to grave employment today and the company does not owe the employee anything. Under these circumstances companies should no longer expect employees to be loyal and keep their opinions to themselves. As has happened in the past the laws are more than a decade behind reality.

Off-shoring, off-peopling, its all the same for business

2005-03-14T07:29:00.000-05:00

There is a new name for automation, Off-Peopling. I actually think it is more reflective of reality and what do you ask is that reality. Simple, people being paid money to work is BAD for business. Replacing employees with cheaper employees or automation is good for business. The ultimate goal of every business is to pay $0 to produce a product that they are paid $Max for. This is how a business gets to maximum profit for shareholders which is what a business tells you they are in business to do. I suspect if this was the actual goal then a whole bunch of executives would be taking less pay and compensation to help those share holders. Any benefit shareholders get is a side effect to making executives rich. And how do they get rich, well we are right back to where we started reducing costs to $0 while maintaining the maximum prices that consumers will pay.

Wait a minute, consumers, aren't those the folks that work for companies, earn money, and buy things. Oops, Houston, we have a problem. Of course this problem is slowly happening, so slow that we still pay attention to metrics that do not reflect the problem at all. Everyone crows about how many jobs get created or are lost. What we need to think about is what is the average compensation of the jobs created versus the jobs lost (lost to where does not matter). This will show us the trend that consumers face and results in the trend businesses will see in the future. As the average family income goes down or flattens then there will be less and less income spent on all those consumer goods that companies make. Of course this is not true for those executives/boardmembers we talked about. Remember they must continue to get ever richer in order to be motivated enough to do a good job for the shareholders.

This graph courtesy of leftbusinessobserver.com

Businesses will not win the shell game of swapping people around for cheaper people or technology alone. Clearly the use of technology to improve productivity has always been done and I can understand that businesses continue to do this. At the same time businesses need to start to concern themselves more with how to make better use of people and help get more people employed at better wages. Most of the products purchased in the world are purchased by the middle class and poor folks. We need a healthy middle class and we need to eliminate poverty. Eliminating poverty by reducing the middle class does not help and increasing poverty to maintain the middle class also does not help. Trading the middle-class in one part of the world to help another part of the world also does no good in the long run.

Businesses must be profitable and executives must be effectively compensated while at the same time helping to grow those nice consumers that buy all their products.

43 things you want to do

2005-03-10T07:59:00.000-05:00

43 Things is a cool site that helps you set and track things you want to do or accomplish. Certain friends of mine could really benefit from this site since they seem to have a hard time focusing on anything for long. 43 things is plenty for just about anyone and who says we can't progress on lots of goals at once :)

Another take on the elitist journalist and blogging from Halley

2005-03-08T08:40:00.000-05:00

Halley has experienced another event where elitist journalists worry about losing their power. I posted earlier about the courts not treating bloggers the same as journalists and it seems this would make journalists very happy based on Halley's interesting interaction on the subject.

Best home made carmels in the world

2005-03-07T08:38:00.000-05:00

The Sisters at Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey make the best home made carmels in the land. Check out their website and give their candy a try. You won't be disappointed. Hmmm, just blogging about it has my mouth watering, time for me to place another order.

Who really gets the blame the CEO or the Board?

2005-03-07T07:49:00.000-05:00

There are many examples of companies being more interested in Wall Street than in main street in this country. Here is one persons perspective on Carly Fiorina that exemplifies this recent attitude in America. But who is really to blame for these short sighted policies. Don't most CEO's implement strategies that the board determines. Even if they do it in partnership it seems to me that boards of directors have become the hidden elitist overly greedy profit mongers of today. The likes of which had not been seen since Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller. These truly greedy individuals were willing to sacrifice everything including the lives of hundreds of human beings to become wealthier and more powerful. The good of the customer, the country and the employee did not enter into their thinking and at best any good they did was accidental. And before anyone says "What about the philanthropy of the Rockefeller Foundation" let me set you straight. That foundation along with many others, was eventually setup as a public relations initiative because people of the United States came to hate these individuals and how they succeeded on the pain and misery of others.

It is not greed by itself that is bad, we need greed to grow and prosper and few of us want to do worse financially in the future than today. What is bad is unbridled greed that is achieve at too great a price for customers, employees and ultimately stock holders. Can anyone say Enron, or WorldCom, or Martha Steward...

I suspect that real grief awaits the boards of many companies if these companies do not regain a balanced perspective on business in America and stop paying lip service to customer and employee satisfaction.

If your company is in a bad way then consider firing the board, not the CEO.

I believe bloggers are journalists in every sense of the word

2005-03-07T07:24:00.000-05:00

The courts in California do not seem inclined to treat regular citizens that publish news and information in blogs as well as they treat journalists. I find this extremely disappointing since publishing by individuals is how journalism really got its start. Publishing has been around for thousands of years and for most of that time it has involved regular folks as much as it has involved governments or businesses or "news" organizations. Consider how Benjamin Franklin got started:

Benjamin wanted to write for the paper too, but he knew that James would never let him. After all, Benjamin was just a lowly apprentice. So Ben began writing letters at night and signing them with the name of a fictional widow, Silence Dogood. Dogood was filled with advice and very critical of the world around her, particularly concerning the issue of how women were treated. Ben would sneak the letters under the print shop door at night so no one knew who was writing the pieces. They were a smash hit, and everyone wanted to know who was the real "Silence Dogood."

Seems to me that Ben has several traits in common with bloggers of today. He was an individual who wanted to make his thoughts, opinions, and research public without fear of retribution. This describes most bloggers as well so it really confuses me why California courts might think the constitution and the law only protects "journalists".

Parents Television Council - today's fascists?

2005-03-04T07:26:00.000-05:00

I was listening to the Bob & Tom show this morning on 96-Rock and they had a piece on censorship of television and radio. Specifically they talked about the overly zealous work by the FCC since the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction and the work of the Parents Television Council. Bob and Tom believe that the current efforts at censorship involves control of content that is fascist like and will ultimately lead to one group of people controlling what we as a society are allowed to see, read, and listen to. They sighted a case where a Buffalo TV station pulled their reading service for the blind because one 89 year old women complained about a single word from a novel read during the overnight hours.

The media says everyone has the ability to turn their TV off and control what their children see, read, and hear. I give you the fact that this is technically true what I don't believe is that enough parents actually care enough to attempt to manage this. And here is where I struggle because while I can setup the V-chip and I do monitor what my children watch, what I cannot do is go 2 houses down and do the same. That child down the block is watching MTV sexually explicit content, watching Sex-in-the-City on TBS, and then playing with my children and showing them all the cool things they have learned. And please don't tell me that what adults and children watch does not affect or influence them. Everything we see, feel, and experience influences us and not all of it for the better.

There has to be a middle ground we can get to that is reasonable in nature for both sides of this. Anything goes no-censorship is no better than the overly zealous efforts today that caused a single blind 89-year old women to impact every blind listener in Buffalo. We can't legislate morality and if we try to we do become Nazi Fascists, at the same time we do need to look for reasonable measures to help parents. I am not sure where the answer is but the direction we are headed in at the moment is not the answer as far as I am concerned.

Seth Godin wants better service, good luck

2005-03-03T07:34:00.000-05:00

Seth in his post titled "Unusual?" wants American Express to provide better service, but will he pay for it? You see for all companies that deliver service after the sale it comes down to money, plain and simple. How can the cost of service be kept at an absolute minimum while keeping the customers minimally happy. Yes I said minimally happy. All the talk you hear about companies wanting loyal customers is not true on the service after the sale piece. American Express wants you to be loyal to their product not loyal to their company because of the great service they offer for your credit card. In Seth's case American Express feels that getting back to folks in a few days helps to keep down costs since slower email days will balance out busier email days. But of course you get those pesky customers complaining about how long it takes. You placate some of them by "setting the customers expectation". Right again, they are not interested in meeting the customers expectation for service after the sale they want to set your expectation.

To his credit Seth believes there must be a better way. And there is, it is called offshore outsourcing. You see companies can get 4+ people in India for the cost of 1 person in the states to do this kind of work. But what is even better is to get only 2 in India and allow extended response times whenever 2 is not enough. Trust me some VP somewhere has gotten a major bonus and job promotion because they cut the cost of help desk support in half for the company.

And all of this is driven by the desire to cut costs because consumers want everything at a lower cost. In fact the entire reason for companies replacing American workers where ever possible with cheaper foreign labor is to keep the costs down for American consumers. Of course the fact that the average household income is going down because replacement jobs don't pay as much is not their concern.

I laughed so hard I pissed myself!

2005-03-02T16:24:00.000-05:00

I was recently introduced to a very funny serios of cartoons on the web. Now these cartoons are NOT politically correct and probably should be viewed from the privacy of your own home with no children around. The toons star Foamy the Squirrel and they are very creative.

These cartoons are for mature audiences only. Click here and go see for yourself. And don't say I did not warn you, this is strictly for those that are NOT easily offended by ANYTHING.

Should sentencing be easier for first time offenders?

2005-03-02T15:48:00.000-05:00

Amazing that after only a few months in prison Martha Stewart believes that we should take it easy on nonviolent first time offenders.

To quote the article:

"The celebrity homemaker also showed a softer side, writing about the plight of some of the 1,100 other inmates. "Many of them have been here for years - devoid of care, devoid of love, devoid of family," she said, urging people to press for reforms in the sentencing guidelines for nonviolent first-time offenders."

Hmmm, the CEO of Enron sure was a non-violent first time offender. I wonder how many people want to be sure that he gets love and care and family while he rots in jail for destroying peoples lives.

And what about the leaders at WorldCom, we surely want them to have love and affection all around. I know lets all line up to give them kisses and bake them an apple pie.

Hogwash, I say be overly harsh the first time and I suspect we drastically reduce the odds of a second time. Some non-violent crimes come close to being as damaging to people and society as murder.

I say we toss Martha back in for another 5 months and she can give the other ladies some care and affection. Or perhaps we send all of them along with Martha to take care of at her home for 5 months. Surely that would be enough loving care for these poor poor inmates and a real boost to the prison budget.

Barbara Joslyn a most extraordinary person!

2005-03-02T07:59:00.000-05:00

Barbara Joslyn is an actress in England that is a friend of mine from years back. Babs and I worked together on a knowledge management project for our company. A few years ago she decided to give up the corporate life and pursue a career in acting. I wish I had her kind of guts to just give up everything and start in a new direction. She is a wonderful person and a great actress. Some day I know she will make it big because she has a great personality and great capabilities. At her web site you can hear some of her voice work and read her diary about the acting gigs she has been involved in. She reminds me of Grace Kelley and Audrey Hepburn. While I did not know these actors personally I do think Barbara has both their looks and their positive approach to life. Someday I know I will be watching the Emmy’s or the Oscar’s and will see Barbara Joslyn picking up an award.

New Jersey SPCA needs a better cause to fight

2005-02-28T08:26:00.000-05:00

So I am catching up on Halley's Comment this morning and find myself reading an article about road kill candy that will stop production because of the New Jersey society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. It seems these folks believe that roadkill shaped candy will encourage children to be cruel to animals. Oh PAAALEEEEAASEE! Does having stuffed animals cause children to want to gut little animals and stuff them with foam? Does biting the heads off of gummi worms make kids run into the back yard looking for fresh victims? And just why are children in New Jersey driving Mac trucks around looking for wildlife to run over.

Children are cruel because they are raised to be cruel by uncaring parents that fail to teach right from wrong. By parents that don't even know who their kids play with let alone perhaps check up on them to see what they are doing. And what about parents that even after the kid is caught act as if their little angel could not be that bad. Even Jeffrey Dahmer's mom said after his conviction that he was a good boy. Despite the fact that he was cruel to animals through most of his childhood. And no, Jeffrey did not have road kill gummi's as a child.

Do laptops belong in schools? Cobb County thinks so

2005-02-24T07:27:00.000-05:00

A county in Georgia is struggling with the concept of providing laptops to every student and teacher in middle school and high school. Teachers and students are for the concept while parents and residents have concerns. First is the fact that residents were asked to approve a special options sales tax based on a set of spending criteria that DID NOT include laptops for all. Laptops for teachers was one of the spending items in the tax but not the 63,000 iBook lease that is now proposed to by the laptop for all concept.

For myself I think the school district is making two mistakes. The first is doing this for all 63,000 at once. Big mistake, no matter what the experience elsewhere or what experience Apple has in this there could be very harsh and expensive lessons for Cobb County to learn. Starting out at one school for a year or starting with 6 graders only and learning from that experience would seem to me to be a better approach. Always do your own pilot of something this significant, never assume the other organizations pilot project covered everything you need to know and experience.

The second big mistake is the use of Apple equipment. Now before you start flaming me I am not an anti-Apple person. I love Apple, love their products and respect them as a supplier of technology. The reason I see this as a mistake is because a very significant percentage of the population has experience with wintel products and they could use this experience to help the children. A parent that has a PC and been using it with their kid for a few years can help when the kid runs into trouble. With an Apple all the parent can do is throw up their arms and call tech support. The other reason is that except for a few niche industries it is extremely likely that these kids will be using Wintel technology in the jobs they get. Of course the idea that Apple is starting a grass roots affinity for their products in this initiative is quite obvious to me as well.

I certainly believe that our educational systems need to make this move to technology. My own experience at learning online with the University of Phoenix has certainly convinced me this is the right move for our county to make. Unfortunately I think the one big bang approach is going to be a very costly lesson. On the upside this may help me to justify a cool PowerBook for myself so I can help my son :)

Is the plight of Mojtaba and Arash really that important?

2005-02-22T07:15:00.000-05:00

I am not sure who decided that the blogging community should take up the cause of Mojtaba and Arash, but I do know no one asked me. See the BBC article if you want the full story. It somewhat surprises me that we should care about two repressed individuals while America is berated globally for caring about hundreds of thousands of repressed people in Afghanistan and Iraq. Caring about repressed people is important to me. The difference is I understand that if we wait for diplomacy to work on every case for too long that we all to often end up creating another Hitler for the world to deal with. I do not advocate shooting first and talking later but neither do I advocate starting to talk if I am not prepared to go all the way in resolving the issue. How far are the individuals who started this willing to go in the cause of these two people.

Iran exports around 2.6 million bbl/d, with major customers including Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Europe. Here are the countries that are supporting the oppression of these two individuals in Iran. Ironically China is another repressive country mentioned in the BBC article. Will bloggers in these countries stop purchasing oil products from Iran? As much as people might think that words have power the reality is the power of words pales in comparison to the power of money. Will the French companies that make profits from selling food to Iran do anything about this? That is the power of money, the power to eliminate oppression or the power to keep oppressors in place.

If bloggers really want to make a difference then find out what companies in your country do business with Iran and stop doing business with those companies. Write them and let them know you will no longer purchase their products and that you will be using your blog to get others to do the same.

GE felt this sort of heat and is taking the right steps

Honestly I want people everywhere to have the freedom to speak out and peacefully work toward change and I certainly would like to see truly oppressed individuals freed. Having a nice banner and a few words on my blog is a nice start but I doubt it is really enough.

Conversing with Pam Brill

2005-02-15T08:21:00.000-05:00

Pam Brill left a very insightful comment for me about the underlying cause of both dysfunctional corporations and verbal abuse issues in school. We exchanged emails about the comment and it turns out that Pam is the author of "The Winners Way" and she was kind enough to send me a short PDF brochure with more details. Having read the brochure I found one very critical take away that I really believe is at the heart of both problems I have blogged about. To quote the brochure "put it all together to engage hearts and minds-your own and others". In my experience people spend to much time either ignoring the heart component completely or let the heart component completely rule their lives. From Pams' perspective the 3 A's, Attitude, Activation, and Attention must be balanced appropriately to the situation in order to better manage behaviors, feelings, thoughts, and ultimately the actions we take. For more details about this please visit Pam's web site "In The Zone". Very interesting reading.

This regular guy believes that most of what plagues us as individuals and even organizations boils down to beliefs which influence our attitudes and this cascades through behaviors, feelings, and our internal thinking. If we believe a change is bad then we find ways to make it so and act to further this belief. The same is true if we believe a change is good, we embrace it and act in ways that cause the change to succeed. Beliefs do not only come from the heart or the mind but are rooted in both domains. Balancing these two is not easy but it can be done as long as we choose to try. Or as my friend Steven would tell me, "Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try". There are many ways to look at this concept, LifeTraks is another organization that has a spin on this concept, but all of them seem rooted in our beliefs. Beliefs about us, about our situation, or about life at any given moment. Seeing is not believing, believing is seeing.

You know your company is dysfunctional when...

2005-02-06T17:32:00.000-05:00

Halley on her blog points to an article on dysfunctional companies that, while not all encompassing, is potentially a real eye opener for some executive level folks at many companies. The article only goes over 3 signs of a dysfunctional company, none of which speak to the morale of employees in general.

What does it say about corporate America when even the signs of being dysfunctional only concern themselves with CEO's and high ranking executives. It should not be news to anyone that people make up most companies and you can tell a great deal about the health of company by understanding how the employees feel and act in regards to their job and company. My thought is by the time the top level executives realize they are dysfunctional, the rest of the company is a walking zombie at best.

The number of dysfunctional companies seems to have grown in recent years with many famous debacles behind us like Enron, WorldCom, and even good old Fannie Mae. When companies ejected the concept of employee-employer loyalty in the 80's I think they removed a foundational relationship component that helped companies to remain functional. There were certainly problems even with this relationship but I believe more people were looking out for the good of the company as much as for their own good. Today people only look out for themselves because many companies have made it clear they are not looking out for the employees.

Why is verbal abuse so common in school today?

2005-02-05T21:03:00.000-05:00

Verbal abuse seems to be very prevalent in our school systems today. Overweight children are mercilessly teased until they snap and kill their abusers. Verbal abuse occurs in many situations where the children are different from each other in any one of a hundred ways. How have we managed to allow or cause our children to revert to such behavior. Is it a parents lack of attention, is it the media our children are exposed to today, or is it just the nature of humans during development to act in beastly ways like wolves vying for dominance and position in the pack.

What ever the source of the behavior one thing is very, very clear. Too many children do not understand how wrong and destructive this behavior is to others and eventually themselves. This behavioral ignorance continues to perpetuate itself and creates more abusers every day. And it seems to me that the level of abuse continues to get more evil and destructive every year.

Is there any such thing as full-time work anymore?

2005-02-03T07:31:00.000-05:00

I really enjoy my blog, but as you can see I have not had enough time to post lately. Besides having a family I also attend the Univerity of Phoenix Online as a full-time student as well as work. Between the three, time is very tight to say the least.

Speaking of work, my job has been a full-time AND a half job for what seems like years. Gone are the days of clocking in at 8 AM and going home at 5 PM with no worries. Now, I think a great deal about work while driving to the office instead of enjoying the drive (yes it is possible to enjoy a drive to work), eat lunch at my desk while taking another meeting, dial-in to conference calls from my cell phone on the drive home (almost never on time), and after getting home review some print outs and work on all of the stuff I couldn't do because I was scheduled in meetings all day. While my annual compensation is certainly good by the standards of the average household in America, on a per hour basis I could make almost as much working as a barista at Starbucks. All of which would not be so bad if I enjoyed my work more, to be more accurate if I worked in a better environment. Currently my company is trying to cut its way to profitability and trying to get them to invest where we need to for our customers is like pulling teeth from a Sarlaac. NOTE: The company is investing in some things but only those things that show an ROI within a very short time frame.

Well enough whining from me about work. On the school front things are going very well. After 16 classes I currenly have a 3.98GPA and my current class on marketing ends next Wednesday, hoorah. For those who do not know marketing actually does run the world. Ever hear about the conspiracy folks who think the world is secretly run by 5 wealthy familes, WRONG! it is run by marketing folks that have power over everything everywhere. I can only hope I have not angered the all powerful marketing folks by revealing this little known fact. My professor has told me "You have a very good marketing mind" so perhaps someday I will be taken into the marketing fold and turned to the dark side (haha). (insert breathing effect.......I am your father Steven.....insert breathing effect). LOL!

What do you lose when loyalty is lost?

2005-01-15T22:30:00.000-05:00

Recent discussions about companies considering whether employee blogging needs to be controlled, put under policy, policed, etc. have gotten me thinking about what the root cause behind the concern is.

When my father worked he knew that he would always have a job as long as he did a good job for the company and the company knew they would keep him on as long as he did a good job. This commitment between each other provided a great deal of benefit for both parties and I suspect a great deal more intangible value was obtained by the company from this relationship than my father got. One benefit was my father's loyalty to his company. This loyalty was strong and he always spoke very well of his company even when they did things he did not really care for. He seemed to believe that even though he did not like it he never believed the company did any thing that was not in the best interests of the employees

It is obvious today that there is no such commitment between most employers and their employees. This lack of commitment has broken, or failed to build, the bond of loyalty and therefore employees are much more free to speak about their employer. This is not to say it causes employees to speak ill of a company but it certainly does not have the power that loyalty has to prevent employees from speaking ill of a company. With loyalty the conversation seemed imbalanced in that more good and less wrong was spoken about. Now without loyalty it would seem that either side of the scale may be prevalent.

So are employers worried that there is a lot more bad to speak about than good?

Perhaps companies should count blogging as the blessing it is, knowledge they never had before. Instead of worrying about what is being said a company should consider why it is being said or not said.

For another interesting view on this topic look at John Porcaro's blog http://johnporcaro.typepad.com/blog/2005/01/blogging_on_the.html

Should employers be allowed to police employee blogging?

2005-01-12T20:15:00.000-05:00

There have been several stories in the news about bloggers getting fired or facing other reprimand from employers because of their blogging activity. The Delta stewardess that was fired for her blog has started a campaign to promote a bill of bloggers rights. People are asked to visit the site and sign on as supporting this effort, even if they want to sign anonomously.

The rights as stated are:

International Bloggers’ Bill of Rights.
posted 01/04/05 (edited Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005 15:52)
We, the inhabitants of the Blogosphere, do hereby proclaim that bloggers everywhere are entitled to the following basic rights:
FREEDOM TO BLOG. FREEDOM FROM PERSECUTION AND RETALIATION BECAUSE OF OUR BLOGS:
1.) If an employer wishes to discipline an employee because of his/her blog, it must first establish clear-cut blogging policies and distribute these to all of its employees.
2.) Blogging employees shall be given warning before being disciplined because of their blogs.
3.) NO ONE shall be fired because of his/her blog, unless the employer can prove that the blogger did intentional damage to said employer through the blog. Blogophobic companies, who violate the Bloggers’ Bill of Rights, will be blacklisted by millions of bloggers the world over.

Seems to me that most companies already have an arrangement setup with employees that basically says do anything that reflects badly on the company and you are likely to be disciplined. A company can fire an employee for the way they behave in other situations why not in how they behave in their blogs. You may not like this but this is really how the business world has worked for a very long time. It is very common for employees to sign an agreement with their employer that essentially takes away all of their constitutional rights in any way that could be connected, even remotely, to the employer.

Most neighborhoods with covenants do the same thing in the covenants, you sign and agree to give up your constitutional rights as well. Many people do not know this.

I don't use iTunes Music Store for the reasons stated in law suit

2005-01-08T14:43:00.000-05:00

I have been purchasing music online for about a year now and I chose to use Napster over iTunes because it provided me the flexibility to use the portable music player that I wanted to use. No it does not work with the iPod but this is because Apple does not want it to happen. I like iPod its a very cool portable music player but I also like options and with iTunes music store I did not get options I only get one choice, the iPod.

I know many will disagree and give me dribble about Apple being the Cadillac of computing technology, baulderdash. This issue is not about a better car, its about designing a specific restriction into the car such that you can only buy a car stereo from Cadillac. Something that Ford was once sued for doing.

I agree with the position this consumer is taking, Apple has no reason to have built restrictions into iTunes downloads other than to prevent consumer choice through use of a monopoly position, something I think they have accused Microsoft of for a long time.

Another year at the grindstone begins

2005-01-06T07:14:00.000-05:00

Well, happy new year to everyone, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or enjoyed other holidays that happen at the end of the year. My holidays were great as usual and I start another year counting down until the next holiday season. Yes, I am one of those cooks that really enjoys the entire holiday season, from Halloween on I am in a Christmas state of mind. I decorate my office cube, I start playing Christmas music and create new compilations from Christmas CD's I got the previous Christmas, I enjoy the shopping and I even enjoy the company of a grinch or two. Grinch's make me appreciate this time of year even more.

But now the real grind begins again in earnest. Besides working full time I am a full time student at the University of Phoenix Online Campus. Going to school online is the only way I am able to fit schooling into my life. Between work and family it is not possible to go to a campus at set times on set days of the week. The class I start today is Marketing, oh joy, oh joy. My view of marketing is not exactly a positive one so it will be interesting to see if this class causes me to drink the marketing kool-aid causing me to believe that a practice that consumes as much as 50% of the price of a product is really worth while.

I also wonder if the end of this year will find me employed where I am today. The industry I work in (IT) is cutting thousands of jobs every day and very few of us will survive the next 5 years. My boss reassures me everything is fine but I suspect I will be rated average at my next review and that is not a good thing when trying to keep your job. At my company all employees are ranked from worst to best in each department so the company always has a set of names ready to lay off. Of course they say the ranking is for other reasons but we never believe them, at least not me. I do like the boss I work for, although she is not the best I have ever had she is at least in the good range and getting better I think. Like all of us she is overworked but she does a good job of keeping in touch with her people. Some of my bosses in the past have been absentee bosses until something went wrong. Not my current boss, she is engaged, helpful and willing to provide constructive feedback that helps me to improve. This is a far cry from the bosses that do not help and only show up to chop your head off.

Let us begin the year together and hope that we end the year as happy as when we started.

On a last note, I do grieve with many over the losses suffered last year from natural disasters and I know that we will all do our part to help during the current crisis just like we do during any other natural disaster. Americans are strong, compassionate people and while not everyone agrees with our methods all of the time, no one can say we do not care.

So what makes a person rich today?

2004-12-23T14:29:00.000-05:00

My Mom and I got into an interesting discussion about when people are rich. We were driving through town and I noticed that 4 high class day spa's opened up in town, all of them in facilities larger than most day spa's that I have seen. I commented that there must be plenty of rich folks around to keep that many day spas' running or at least to convince someone to open them in this area. Mom did not care for this comment, rich people do not live around here. Well of course what I meant was people with disposable income available to spend on luxuries like day spa's, not millionaires.

I think my Mom is one of those that truly fails to understand that most households in America have much less income than she realizes. I know that several years ago if your household income was above $75,000 that you were in the top 5% of all wage earners households in America. I work with a gentleman that tends to whine a bit about money and I assure you his household is in the top 10% at least if not the top 5% even today.

For me being rich is about choices once you start to earn in the top 30% of the country. You choose a big house, lots of vacations, boat, fancy cars, home theatre mega rooms, etc. then you have arrived at rich, wealthy, etc and when you don't have money for the 52nd luxury item you want then it is not because you are not rich, it is because of the choices you made.

I do not have all the luxuries I would like but I know that I am among the privileged in this country and would never dare to whine I do not have enough money or suggest that I am to poor to afford something like a day spa for my wife.

Is moving off of IE really the solution?

2004-12-15T07:26:00.000-05:00

An article in informationweek discusses the move by Penn State to encouage all students and faculty to move off of Microsoft Internet Explorer

Here is a small piece of what the article says:
A public university with an enrollment of over 80,000 put the kibosh this week on Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and urged its students to switch to alternative browsers such as Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, or Safari.
Penn State University on Wednesday issued an alert to students and staff recommending that they dump IE and use a different browser.

"The University computing community [should] use standards-based Web browsers other than Internet Explorer to help minimize exposure to attacks that occur through browser vulnerabilities," added ITS.

Some of the problems from IE are caused by programming bugs and other vulnerabilities are features designed to make a users life easier. Unfortunately there are people that exploit these things in malicious ways and cause users trouble.

Do these "naughty hackers" take advantage of IE because the flaws are there or do they target IE because it controls a huge percentage of the browser market. If Firefox controlled 50% of the browser market how long would it be before these folks find flaws to take advantage of in Firefox. I suspect it would not be to long.

There was a time when the phone was used maliciously on a regular basis to make crank calls. The implmentation of caller-id technology and call blocking was put in to prevent a significant amount of these problems and it worked for awhile. It wasn't long before "caller-id spoofing" was available and the problems have resurfaced. I think the same is true in browser switching, the trouble will be back sooner then Penn State realizes.

I will stick with IE and rely on my virus protection and spyware protection to keep me safe, for now :)

The death of TV as we know it will probably empty our wallets as well

2004-12-10T07:46:00.000-05:00

Frank Rose wrote a very interesting article about the plans that cable companies have to move to next generation network infrastructure so that true on demand TV becomes a reality and delivers more then you might think. The cable companies see this as the satellite service killer since TV on demand will literally provide every person with a TV experience customized to them. Something the satellite providers can not match, at least not right now.

Unfortunately I suspect this whiz bang very cool stuff with no competition will come at a very stiff price. One of the reasons satellite TV is continuing to kick cables butt is because the price point for the quality is better. Cable operators do not want competition they want to be a monopoly so that they can charge ever higher prices. We can only hope that competition emerges as a result of both baby bells and cable operators in a local market offering essentially equal whiz bang stuff. For now I am EXTREMELY happy with my DishNetwork service and will stick with it.

It all comes down to funding...

2004-12-09T21:32:00.000-05:00

Businesses approach funding (setting aside cash to pay for a project) in a very logical way. They view the return on an investment as what they are owed for making the investment. And businesses are certainly in business to earn a return, after all if they can get 4% from a cd why would they invest in a project that only returns 3%.

The sticky ground I run into is when the return is hard to measure and quantify. Take a place like amazon.com, they rely on their web portal for their existence and they make changes that please customers because if they do not please the customers sales will drop. There is a direct connection between sales and quality of their web site and the projects they fund to make the site more productive. This all seems pretty reasonable, easy to connect and even pretty easy to measure.

But take a web portal that is removed from the direct sale chain and instead is in support of the customer after the sale. Customers visiting the support site are generally displeased, you know what displeases them, you know why it displeases them and you even know how to fix it to make them happy. The rub is how do you quantify in $'s returned to the company those enhancements that you need. An investment is needed to fix the issues but where is the return, and worse yet what if it will take 2 years to fix everything and the company wants a return in the next 9 months.

There must be a structured approach to connecting disatisfaction with a company after the sale with lost revenue or lost sales, I just can't seem to find it.

Laptop cooling

2004-12-09T08:13:00.000-05:00

I have been considering purchasing a laptop cooling device to try and keep my laptop cool and performing at top speed. I contribute to a distributed computing effort with my laptop so the processor runs pretty hot most of the time. Post a comment if you have a laptop cooler that works for you.

On the lighter side of this topic it seems I may be worrying about cooling the wrong lap

Laptops a Hot Fertility Issue :)

The truth is out there....or is it?

2004-12-08T21:45:00.000-05:00

While I have not personally seen the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 there does seem to be quiet a few that believe this is just another example of journalism with a goal and that goal is not to communicate the full complete truthful circumstances. Dave Kopel has published a file discussing 59 deceits in the movie while Michael Moore and others continue to defend the movie as factual.

Add to this the false documents that Dan Rather used during the election and we very quickly realize that the news media is no longer about the news. It is, and some will tell me has been for a long time, about political agenda's. (There is some great discussion about the Rather thing at Hugh Hewitt's blog.)

I could go on but the examples are endless on both sides of the fence and bloggers have certainly been no pool of purity when it comes to facts and the complete truth. Perhaps the truth really is not out there on many topics because all of us have blind spots to things we do not wish to acknowledge, confront or believe. In the final end most of what we believe may be our choice to believe those things that reinforce our previous beliefs or positions on a topic. Believing may truly be seeing.....

People's Choice - your vote can count again

2004-12-08T21:33:00.000-05:00

CBS is getting ready for the next People's Choice Awards and is taking votes now. Everyone who is interested in an award earned from the Regular Folks of our country should vote for these. The diversity of candidates in each category was pretty impressive and I was able to vote easily for my favorites in each one. And just maybe the people that lost the last peoples choice election can win this one....

There were a great number of good movies released this year so the movie categories were a little tough for me to choose from. My top pic is for Elastic Girl in the cartoon character category, the character voiced by Holly Hunter was great!